The Bengaluru Crime Branch arrested one more person in the terror module case on Sunday night. Mohammad Akram, 22, alias Khalid, who had been on the run for the last couple of days, was picked up from Bengaluru’s Majestic area while he was trying to flee the city.
CCB officials recovered a 7.65 mm Italian-make pistol and 16 cartridges from Akram. The number of people apprehended in the case reached 13 with his arrest.
Sources said in Hyderabad that Akram, a driver, was a frequent visitor to the city and had met Mohammed Obaid-ur Rehman who had been arrested on Friday for his HuJI-LeT links.
The two had apparently met at Rehman’s residence in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Colony to discuss terror strategies and writings in the Inspire magazine of al- Qaeda.
Akram, hailing from Nanded in Maharashtra, had stayed in Hyderabad for a few months and had stayed Saudi Arabia for a year. Police sources said that he was a friend of Shaheed Bilal, the HuJI commander from Hyderabad who was killed in an encounter in Pakistan.
Akram and Rehman had also contacted Shaheed Bilal’s brother Majid, who is said to be operating from Saudi Arabia. They had discussed the Macca Masjid blasts in May 18, 2007, and the subsequent police firing in Hyderabad.
“Interrogation of the accused has so far revealed that Hyderabadi terror suspects holed up in Saudi Arabia, including Shaheed Bilal’s brother identified as Majid, are handling the module. Of the four brothers from Moosrambagh, Shaheed Bilal and Samad were killed in Pakistan. Majid escaped to Saudi Arabia and Zahed, an accused in a suicide attack case, is in the country.
“The accused in the Bengaluru conspiracy module had contacted Majid and offered to work in Afghanistan against Americans. Prior to this they were asked to carry out attacks in the state,” said a police source.