LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (UPATS) arrested eight members of proscribed terror outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), officials said.
Those arrested were identified as Lukmaan, Shahzad, Kari Mukhtar, Mudassir, Kamil, Alinoor, Nawazish Ansari and Aleem. ATS officials said that Mudassir was arrested from Haridwar and the others from Saharanpur. They all have been booked under the charges of unlawful activities prevention Act and concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war.
Additional director general (Law and Order), Prashant Kumar said that UP ATS was receiving information from intel agencies that al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent (AQIS) and its associate agency JMB were spreading their network in UP and planning to wage a war against the state.
“They were radicalising youths and preparing for terror attacks,” he said.
The officer said that the arrested Bangladeshis used to add the orthodox people in their group inviting them in the name of jihad while they used to keep their identities a secret. “They used apps in mobile phones to dodge the intelligence agencies and give a training to their disciples on how to use these apps using codes and then destroy them if they got caught,” said ADG Kumar.
The ATS said that Lukmaan had given shelter to terrorist Abdul Talha for 11 months and also funded terror activities. Police also seized anti-country literature, a pen drive and a mobile phone and sent it for forensic examination. An officer privy to the probe said that Abdul Talha is wanted by the NIA and STF, West Bengal in multiple terror acts.
Another officer said that Shahzad was adept in bomb making and had also spread the wings of the outfit to Madhya Pradesh. “Mudassir was given Rs 80,000 by Talha for a terror act. Another accused Kamil had used his bank account in which Rs 2.5 lakh was sent by Talha,” said the officer.
Further, Alinoor was involved in radicalising youths by tutoring them and had hidden his real identity. Other accused, Nawazish and Aleem also provided logistics support to terrorist Talha.
