Three accused, including a Pakistani citizen, have been convicted in a terror conspiracy case allegedly hatched in Parappana Agrahara Central Prison Complex to recruit youths for the Pakistan-based proscribed terror organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba to carry out attacks in Bengaluru.
The accused, Syed Abdul Rehman from Bengaluru, Afsar Pasha, hailing from Chintamani, Chikkaballapur district, and Mohammed Fahad Khoya, hailing from Karachi, have been convicted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, Explosive Substances Act, 1956 and 120(B) and 122 of Indian Penal Code. The special court that convicted the trio has reserved its judgement on the quantum of punishment, police said.
According to the police, the trio met in Parappana Agrahara Central Prison Complex after they were arrested for different cases and serving time together in 2012. Mohammed Fahad Khoya, a Pakistani citizen, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a Mysuru terror case and eight years in a Kozhikode terror case along with Afsar Pasha, a convict in the 2005 Indian Institute of Science (IISc) attack case serving a life sentence in Bengaluru prison.
A city-based rowdy sheeter Syed Abdul Rehaman, hailing from Tippu Nagar, Mysuru Road, and arrested in 2011 for multiple cases, including murder and dacoity, was befriended and allegedly brainwashed by Khoya and Pasha in the prison and exhorted to put together a Lashkar-e-Taiba module in the city.
After Abdul Rehaman was released from prison on bail, the terror-accused duo had, through him, allegedly recruited several Muslim youths for Lashkar-e-Taiba and were preparing to carry out terror attacks in the city, police had alleged.
The case was cracked after a senior officer K.C. Ashokan, then working with the Central Crime Branch (CCB), had received a tip-off on their activities in 2012. CCB had registered a fresh FIR alleging terror conspiracy and arrested Abdul Rehaman. His interrogation allegedly revealed that the module had been in the advanced stages of preparation for a terror attack, and police had recovered explosives and four live bullets.
