A 32-year-old Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorist, wanted in several cases of bomb blasts in the country, was arrested by the Delhi Police anti-terror unit, Special Cell, from the Indo-Nepal border area on Tuesday evening.
Pramod Singh Kushwah, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), said on Wednesday, “Sleuths of the Special Cell nabbed Ariz Khan alias Junaid. He has been on the run since the September 2008 Batla House encounter. He was planning to revive IM in India by indoctrinating unemployed youths across the country. And he was hiding in Nepal.”
Police said Khan has a degree in BTech in Information Technology from Muzzafarnagar and is an expert bomb maker and a co-conspirator in several bomb blasts across India from 2007 till late 2008 which killed a total of 165 people. “He was ideologically much more radicalised than other members of the IM,” police said.
Police said Khan was carrying a reward of Rs 15 lakh, out of which Rs 5 lakh was kept on him by the Delhi Police. “Khan was wanted in connection with the Batla House encounter in September 2008 in which Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was killed. Khan was also involved in several bombing incidents such as the Ahmedabad serial blasts in July 2008 in which 56 people were killed, while more than 150 people were injured. In the same year, Khan was also involved in the Jaipur serial blasts which killed 63 people and left over 200 people injured,” said Kushwah.
Khan was a member of Azamgarh (Sanjarmur) module of the IM and was based in Nepal where he was teaching at a school. His accomplice, Tauqueer, was arrested earlier by the Delhi Police in January this year. A senior officer said that Khan played a “pivotal role” in Delhi serial blasts of September, 2008. His aides Mohammad Saif and Khalid alias Kodi brought the explosive from Udupi (Karnataka) and he along with Atif Ameen, a friend from school days, received the explosives in Delhi.
The Special Cell sleuths had arrested one wanted IM terrorist Abdul Subhan alias Tauqeer last month.
Based on Tauqeer’s interrogation, along with a tip-off provided by the intelligence agencies, police found out that Khan is hiding in Nepal and that he would be coming to Uttar Pradesh near the Banbasa border to meet an associate.
Accordingly, a team under ACP Govind Sharma laid a trap and nabbed Khan near the Sharda Inter College in Banbasa on Tuesday evening.
Police said after fleeing from l-18, Batla House in Zakir Nagar, Ariz, along with his associate Shehzad, had sought shelter from their relatives. While most of them helped them with financial aid, they refused to provide them shelter. It was then Khan and his associate moved in and out in buses across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. They parted ways after which Khan came in contact with his uncle, living in Nepal, who helped him procure a fake Nepal citizenship card and passport.
During his stay in Nepal, Khan stayed at different places like Palpa, Kapilavastu and Gorkha area, said police, adding that Khan ran a restaurant and being good in mathematics and science, he started teaching in schools in Nepal.
From 2009 till 2014, Khan stayed in Nepal and it was here that he came in touch with Riyaz Bhatkal who asked him to go to Saudi Arabia.
Bhatkal motivated Khan to arrange money to revive the IM. As a cover, he worked as a labourer. In three years, from 2014 till 2017, he met many IM sympathisers and in 2017, he started coming to India, police said.
Kushwah said, “After fleeing from the Batla House encounter, he called his wife in Azamgarh and said, “Chota locha hua hai. Chinta ki koi baat nahi (I am involved in a minor problem. No need to worry).”
Khan was also a co-conspirator in the UP courts blasts matter where “he was enraged after some lawyers thrashed three terrorists of the Jaish-E-Mohammad.” He had planned to teach them a lesson and planted IEDs across the lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad courts which killed 15 dead, police said.
It was in November 2007 that the members of the IM had sent an email to the top TV news channels five minutes before the blasts, claiming responsibility for the blasts, police said.