The CCB sleuths nabbed a terror recruiter for Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) from Bengaluru on Sunday evening, bringing the total arrested in the city to 14.
A medical professional, Dr Nayeem Siddique, was detained, following confessions by others nabbed earlier, that he had provided crucial logistic and financial support to arrested suspects.
In course of interrogation, the arrested also revealed that Dr Siddique, a resident of Davengere, was the key head-hunter who used to profile possible recruits and then brainwash them into waging war against the so-called anti-Islamists. Dr Siddique is also being seen as the man who meticulously set up several sleeper cells with targeted modules in the state in Hubli and Bengaluru.
The police, which launched a blog to impart information on the biggest challenge they have faced in the recent times, refused to release the details of Dr Siddique’s arrest, saying he was detained in the city and was part of the Hubli terror module.
The police is said to have homed in on Siddique after one of his protégés named him as the recruiter in chief. The police said they had recovered a laptop, a mobile phone and Rs10,000 in cash from the Davangere doctor with insiders admitting that one of those arrested said he had sent jihadi recruiting material through a courier to the 'dirty dozen'.
The police believes their swift action will send several terror modules targeting several right wing politicians, journalists , underground.
Siddique, who was the key link between the men arrested in Hubli, Bengaluru and Hyderabad is expected to point the police in the direction of other terror modules in the terror network.
The police are also trying to trace the funding pattern and sources to put an identity on the IM offshoot’s handlers in Saudi Arabia.
Dr Nayeem Siddiqi was in charge of the module targeting Bajrangdal leader Ganu Jartarkar in Hubli. According to sources Mohammad Akram, alias Khalid, arrested by city police on Saturday had assigned Dr Nayeem to trail Ganu along with Dr Jaffar Iqbal and others in Hubli.