Intelligence Bureau, police tracked ‘terror 12’

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It now traspires that 12 people, not 11, were arrested by Bengaluru City police on Thursday for alleged links to terror outfits HuJI and LeT.

The 12th person arrested in a series of well-coordinated moves between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh police and the Intelligence Bureau, was Mohammed Ubaidur Rehman, a student in Hyderabad. Meanwhile, the 11 arrested in Bengaluru and Hubli have been remanded to police custody till September 13.

The accused, arrested under sections of the IPC, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Arms Act, were allegedly planning to target the Kaiga nuclear facility.

Senior officials have revealed that the IB had tipped off the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police here three months ago about possible attacks by members of a terror ‘sleeper cell’ in Karnataka. Some arrested members were under IB surveillance, following the 2010 stadium blast.

The CCB had tapped the phones of suspects over the last three months, tracked their emails and watched their every move.

“We are checking the call and travel details of suspects. We are probing whether the module planned attacks in other parts of the country. They were very close to executing their plans when we picked them up,” the officer said, adding 'Saudi currency notes have been recovered from them'.

AP police, who arrived with information on the terror modules in the state, too, had been tracking the 11 suspects for over 45 days and were part of the raiding team when arrests were made on Thursday.

Narendra Modi, chinnaswamy stadium targets?

“A photograph of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, sitting with editor in chief of a news organisation and a journalist on Matiur Rahman’s computer has sparked suspicion they were on his hit list,” a police officer revealed.

One of the terror suspects had bought tickets online for the Test match between India and New Zealand at Chinnaswamy Stadium, which began on Friday.

The police are trying to find out whether the suspects were planning to carry out any attacks at the stadium, where a blast occurred in 2010 just before a cricket match. The suspect had bought eight tickets, a police officer, involved in the investigation, told Deccan Chronicle.

Hyd student suspected to have IM, HuJI links

Family members of Rehman, who is a final year B.Com student in Anwar-ul-Uloom College and a resident of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Colony in Chandrayanagutta, however claimed that he was innocent and had no links with any terror organisation.

Incidentally, Rehman is a close relative of Moulana Mohammed Naseeruddin, founder of TTSE (Tehreek Thafuz Sher-e-Islam). Naseeruddin had been arrested earlier in the Gujarat conspiracy case and was in jail for almost six years.

Hyderabad police commissioner Anurag Sharma confirmed that the Bengaluru police had picked up a wanted person from the city in connection with their case.

Meanwhile, state counter-intelligence chief, DIG B. Srinivasulu, along with anti-terror experts, rea-ched Bengaluru to interrogate the terror suspect.

“Our team is in Bengaluru to question the accused about other suspects linked to the module and to get information of other terror plans,” said a source.

Sources said that one of Rehman’s friends, one Ahmed, had also been picked up by the police for questioning.

Terror suspect sought cops’ nod 7 times for public meet

Terror suspect Sadiq Lashkar, arrested by the Bengaluru CCB, had tried to hold religious meetings in the city several times, but was stopped by the police which felt they could be a threat to communal harmony.

“We did not allow attempts at communal propaganda by Sadiq keeping public interest in mind although he approached us several times for permission. We felt the religious meets he was planning to hold could disrupt the peace”, said Deputy Commissioner of Police S.M. Pratapan.

Besides being an active member of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and Popular Front of India (PFI), a confederation of Muslim organisations across the country, Sadiq was also identified with the JD(S) before joining the Praja Pragati Ranga. He, however, distanced himself from these organisations after his second marriage to a woman from Bhatkal, Uttar Kannada, according to the police.

While he was believed to be in close touch with several members of his community in Bhatkal after his marriage a few months ago, his parents claimed he had become distant with them of late and did not keep them informed about his activities.

“My son was not really in touch with us for the last few months. He did not respond to us very well and did not answer our telephone calls. But I hope he will be exonerated of the charges levelled against him”, said Sadiq's father, Yusuf.

Aman Kalegar, an SDPI member, said Sadiq had attended its conventions and had also worked for the empowerment of marginalised sections of the Muslim community. Meanwhile, the police, which suspects that members of banned outfits like SIMI have regrouped in the names of other organisations ,has launched a hunt for them in the twin cities of Hubli and Dharwad.