ISIS operative Abu Zaid, who used to lure Indian youths into his terror outfit, has been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on his arrival from Saudi Arabia. Acting on tip-off, a visiting UP ATS team took into custody Zaid, a native of Azamgarh town in Uttar Pradesh, at the Mumbai airport on Saturday.
Confirming the arrest, UP’s Additional Director General of Police (ADGP)) Anand Kumar said in lucknow on Sunday that Zaid, based in Riyadh, used a social media group to lure youngsters from India into joining ISIS.
Zaid’s name had cropped up during the interrogation of four ISIS operatives arrested by the UP ATS in April, following which a lookout notice was issued against him.
The investigations have revealed that Zaid was the ideologue of four arrested ISIS suspects — Umar, alias Nazim; Ghazi Baba, alias Muzammil; Mufti, alias Faizan; and Jakawan, alias Eihtesham. The mobile phone records of four arrested suspects have revealed that they were in regular touch with Zaid. “They used to talk via an application on the internet and Zaid was their ideologue,” the ADGP said.
According to the UP Police, this terror module was planning to engineer attacks at various places in India.
The UP ADGP said that Zaid was being taken on a transit remand from Mumbai to lucknow, where he would be produced before a court. “After we formally take him into custody, we will interrogate him,” he said.
Zaid is the second major arrest made from the Mumbai airport. Earlier, in a joint operation, the Anti-Terrorist Squads of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh Police had on July 17 arrested suspected lashkar-e-Tayyeba (leT) operative Salim Mukim Mohammed Khan from the Mumbai airport.
A resident of Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh, Salim had allegedly been involved in the fidayeen attack on the Rampur CRPF camp that took place on January 1, 2008. He was absconding since the incident. The initial investigations by the Maharashtra ATS had revealed that Salim owed allegiance to leT.