The Andhra Pradesh police on Wednesday arrested terror operative Viqaruddin Ahmed, who was on the run for more than two years after masterminding the killing of a home guard and a constable in the city.
On information that he was moving around in disguise, the police nabbed him when he came to a roadside shop to buy vegetables at Padmaraonagar in Secunderabad.
The police were on the lookout for Viqaruddin ever since he went underground immediately after the Mecca Masjid blast here in May 2007. He narrowly avoided arrest on December 3, 2008, after firing at two policemen. He is also believed to be behind the fatal attacks on policemen at Falaknuma on May 18, 2009 and May 14, 2010.
The Counter Intelligence Cell also detained his brother, Sulaiman, and two others after raiding a single-room tenement they had taken on rent at Shabajiguda of Padmaraonagar.
Among the detained was a homeopathy doctor, Mohammed Haneef, of Musheerabad, who sheltered Viqaruddin. Based on Viqaruddin's confession, two youths were picked up from Miryalaguda in Nalgonda district, 140 km from here. They are being questioned.
Police records show that Viqaruddin, who lives in Malakpet, was initially associated with the Darsgah Jihad-O-Shahadat, a religious fundamentalist organisation operating from the Old City.
