India brings ‘Al-Qaeda man’ back

Syed Mohammed Zishan Ali was wanted by Delhi police special cell since last year

August 10, 2017 12:45 am | Updated September 23, 2017 12:44 pm IST - NEW DELHI

Syed Mohammed Zishan Ali (in white), the alleged Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) fugitive deported from Saudi Arabia, is presented to the media in New Delhi on Thursday.

Syed Mohammed Zishan Ali (in white), the alleged Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) fugitive deported from Saudi Arabia, is presented to the media in New Delhi on Thursday.

In a major breakthrough, Indian agencies on Wednesday succeeded in bringing back alleged al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) fugitive Syed Mohammed Zishan Ali from Saudi Arabia. He was wanted by the Delhi Police Special Cell since last year.

A senior Delhi Police officer confirmed the news to The Hindu late on Wednesday night. Zishan, a resident of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, operated from Saudi Arabia. He is believed to be married to the sister of Dr. Sabeel Ahmed, a cousin of the 2007 Glasgow international airport (U.K.) attack mastermind Kafeel Ahmed, who had moved from Bengaluru to Saudi Arabia in 2010-11.

The police had secured an arrest warrant against Zishan in June 2016. His name was also mentioned in a charge sheet filed against the alleged AQIS accused persons. Zishan’s brother Syed Mohammed Arshiyan, who was last spotted in Saudi Arabia, is also allegedly has links with international terror outfits. He is also wanted by the Indian agencies.   

The police first came to know about the two brothers from AQIS accused and Cuttack-based cleric Abdul Rehman, who was arrested in December 2015 in coordination with the Odisha Police.

During interrogation, Rehman allegedly disclosed that he knew Arshiyan since 2003. He later came in contact with his brother Zishan. The accused disclosed that through Arshiyan, Dr. Ahmed and other Saudi Arabia-based contacts, he had sent some young men to Pakistan for training in terror camps there.

Al Qaeda man Syed Mohammed Zishan Ali

Syed Mohammed Zishan Ali

 

Intelligence agencies had started working on the AQIS module soon after a video by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri surfaced in September 2014. It announced the outfit’s formation. About a year later, the police busted a module involving some residents of Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal and this led to further arrests.

They found that AQIS chief Maulana Asim Umar alias Shaan-ul Haq was also a resident of Deepa Sarai in Sambhal. It is suspected that he had crossed over to Pakistan in 1998.

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