LUCKNOW: A local court on Monday sent terror accused, Minaz and Masiruddin, who were arrested by the UP Anti-Terrorist Squad (UP ATS), to 14-day police custody, reports Pathikrit Chakraborty.
The ATS had on Sunday claimed to have busted a module of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an auxiliary unit of Al-Qaeda, with the arrest of Minaz Ahmad and his associate Masiruddin. Their remand will begin from July 13 morning.
The ATS sleuths had also claimed to have recovered an improvised explosive device (IED) in the form of a pressure cooker bomb and a 9mm countrymade pistol from the house of Minaz.
Inspector general of police, ATS, GK Goswamy said during remand, the operatives would be quizzed about their association with Umar Halmandi, a listed Al-Qaeda operative based somewhere along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border, how they got in touch with him and the places they were planning to attack.
“We will try to find out the duration of their association with terror groups, along with their travel history. We have written to emigration authorities to check the travel history of the duo to any foreign country. Details of their bank account have also been sought,” the IG said.
Another officer privy to the probe said the mobiles of the two operatives would be scanned and their social media chats and exchanges would be decrypted.
“An improvised explosive device (IED) in the form of a pressure cooker bomb was made in the house of Masiruddin. Some residues were recovered during searches while the duo had transferred the IED cooker to the house of Minaz and were planning to use it soon when the calls were intercepted and the ATS commandoes nabbed the duo,” said an official privy to the probe.
ATS sleuths continued to hunt for the missing accomplice, Shakeel, in Kanpur and some districts near National Capital Region (NCR). Unconfirmed reports said an aide of Minaz and Masiruddin was picked up from Kanpur but there was no official confirmation about the same.
