Sleuths of the UP Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) claimed to have made further breakthrough by arresting three more Al-Qaeda operatives in connection with the ‘human bomb’ plot case on Wednesday.
The arrests came following extensive grilling of Al-Qaeda supported Ansar Ghazwatul Hind operatives held in Lucknow last Sunday.
The three suspects nabbed on Wednesday were identified as Mohammed Muid (29), Shakeel (36) and Mohammed Mustakim (44) and they were accused of arranging logistics for the two ultras arrested earlier. Earlier on Sunday, the ATS had netted two terrorists of Ansar Ghazwatul Hind, identified as Minhaz Ahmed of Dubagga and Maseeruddin of Madiaon, and they were charged with planning to unleash terror activities on August 15 (Independence Day) in different cities of the state. The ATS team had recovered explosives, hand guns and two pressure cookers which were to be used as bombs. They were later produced in a Lucknow court which remanded them to 14-day police custody for quizzing that could unravel the sinister plot. Both accused are in ATS custody and are being quizzed.
Sources said that during the grilling of Minhaz and Maseerudddin, the ATS received inputs that three aides had provided arms and other logistical support to them and were still present in Lucknow.
IG (ATS) GK Goswami said that the trio was summoned for questioning and during interrogation, they confessed to providing logistics to the former two. All the three will be now produced in a local court to seek police custody remand for further quizzing.
Minhaz and Maseerudin also disclosed that they were in touch with their handler Umar Halmandi, head of the UP module of Al-Qaeda, who gave instructions from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Halmandi’s real name is Syed Akhtar and he is a native of Sambhal (UP). On Wednesday, his brother told the police that Syed absconded from home in 1998-99 when he was only 22-years of age and since then, he never visited them, not even on the death of his parents. Syed reportedly ran away with Asim Umar and two others.
Sources said that Syed Akhtar visited Kanpur Nagar, Ayodhya, Lucknow and Varanasi along with Minhaz last year.
However, due to COVID-19 lockdown, he left the operation midway and returned. The sources said that he provided an old SIM card to Minhaz which later helped IB sleuths to track down the module and with the help of ATS and bust their plan and arrest the two militants last Sunday.
Syed also trained Minhaz on how to operate on social media in Baramulla (Kashmir).