Suspected Hizbul Mujahideen militant Sayyed liyaqat Shah, booked for waging a war against the country by the Delhi Police, which claimed he was planning to carry out terror attacks in the national Capital, was on Saturday remanded in 14-day judicial custody by a city court.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Manoj Kumar sent 45-year-old Shah, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, to Tihar Jail till April 12 after he was produced in the court before the expiry of his 15-day police remand.
Shah was being quizzed since March 21 by the special cell of Delhi Police which had earlier secured his custody for 15 days. Police moved a plea saying that the accused be sent to jail as they do not need to quiz him anymore. “The investigation has not been completed yet. The accused (Shah) is remanded to judicial custody till April 12,” the CMM said.
The police in its application has submitted that Shah was apprehended on March 20 from the Indo-Nepal border area near Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and during his interrogation, he revealed that he is a trained militant of banned terror group Hizbul Mujahideen and was settled in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).
The police also said that in January 2013, Shah and his associate Manzoor, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, were directed by top-ranks of Hizbul to carry out terrorist attacks in Delhi. The agency also said that upon disclosure of the accused, a huge consignment of arms, hand-grenades, explosive material and other incriminating material was recovered from a guest house in Jama Masjid area. It also said that his associates, including Manzoor are missing.
Shah’s arrest has generated conflicting versions from the Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir police. While Delhi Police claimed that with Shah’s arrest they had foiled a ‘fidayeen’ (suicide) attack in the capital ahead of Holi, its J-K counterpart insisted that he was one of those who had exfiltrated in 1990s and had returned to India to surrender under the State’s rehabilitation policy.