The Hindu : Front Page : 3 Pakistani militants held in Lucknow

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 17, 2007
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3 Pakistani militants held in Lucknow

Atiq Khan

They belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammad and allegedly planned to kidnap a top politician

— PHOTO: SUBIR ROY

INSIDIOUS DESIGNS: Three members of the Jaish-e-Mohammad being produced before journalists after their arrest jn Lucknow on Friday.

LUCKNOW: The Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh police on Friday foiled a plot hatched by militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) to abduct a top politician from the State.

The plan was to build international pressure for securing the release of 42 JeM men — including Afzal Guru, the main accused in the December 13, 2001, attack on Parliament — who are lodged in different jails in the country.

Following inputs from intelligence agencies, the STF arrested three Jaish militants after an encounter near Vishal Hospital on the New Delhi-Lucknow national highway around 5 a.m. Those arrested were identified as Mohammad Abid alias Fatte alias Safdar alias Ayub (26), Yusuf alias Faisal (21) and Mirza Rashid Beg alias Raja Qazzafi (26). They hailed from Lahore, Multan and Gujranwala in Pakistan.

Director General of Police Vikram Singh said the trio was travelling to Lucknow in a grey-coloured Santro car, bearing Rae Bareli registration number UP 33 A 3536. They were arrested following a shootout, in which the car was damaged. Two AK-47 rifles and four magazines, 16 hand grenades of Chinese make, three Chinese .30 bore Star pistols, 120 cartridges, 4 kg RDX and four detonators were seized from the vehicle.

During interrogation, they disclosed that they had attended a training camp in Bahawalpur, and their objective was to take hostage a leading politician.

Suicide bombers

Mr. Singh, who described the three as “fidayeen” or suicide bombers, declined to name the VVIP politician but said they were imparted training for six months. They had been told to take up odd jobs in the offices of political parties in a bid to hide their weapons and ammunition there. These were to be used during the kidnap.

Apart from the release of 42 terrorists, the JeM wanted the Centre to give $1 million to each of them. Among the other demands were to be — talks for resolving the Kashmir issue should include two representatives each of Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq; that Yusuf Nepali be sent to his family in Nepal; and that political asylum in Saudi Arabia be sought for militant Abdul Lateef.

The three had been trained in different camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Mohd. Abid underwent training in the Khalid Bin Waleed training camp in Afghanistan in 2001, followed by a 15-day exercise in the jungles of Muzaffarabad in Pak-occupied Kashmir in 2006. Yusuf attended a 28-day camp along with 18 others in Balakot, Pakistan, in February 2007. Mirza Rashid Beg attended a Harkat-ul-Mujahideen camp in Jalalabad in Afghanistan in 2000, and another camp in Balakot in May-June 2001.

Interrogation revealed that they tried to enter India from Bangladesh but failed. Later, they infiltrated into India from PoK on trucks carrying fruits

Train tickets revealed that they boarded the Sampark Kranti Express at Jammu on November 14 for journey to Delhi. Three fake identity cards were also seized.

The engine and chassis numbers of their Santro car were scratched and illegible. The STF has not ruled out the possibility that the registration number of the vehicle could be fake.

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