A joint team of the Anti-Terrorist Squad of Lucknow and Western zones and the Tamil Nadu police on Tuesday arrested Taufeeq alias Abdulla alias Akbar, son of Suhail Hameed, from the Morna bus stand in Noida (Gautam Buddha Nagar district). The police claimed that Taufeeq was involved in anti-national activities. He is from Adiramapattinam village in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu and was wanted by the police of his home State.
A case had been filed against him in the Kodungaiyur police station in Chennai (case number 681/2002) under Section 4 (B) of the Explosives Act and Section 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code and had been wanted since 2008. According to the police, Taufeeq had slipped into Uttar Pradesh from Bangladesh and had visited Kolkata, Gorakhpur, Bahraich and Lucknow before he was nabbed.
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Well-versed in Urdu, Hindi and Bangla, Taufeeq had established contact with some persons in Nepal and was trying to get an identity card and passport made, police said.
Giving details of the joint operation, the Uttar Pradesh Additional Director-General (Law and Order and Anti-Terrorism Squad) Subesh Kumar Singh told journalists that interrogations revealed that Taufeeq, who was named as an accused in the murder of a tempo driver, Kumar, of Adiramapattinam village in 2000 fled to Saudi Arabia in 2001 and after his return from the country stayed for some time in Mumbai with one Imran Aziz.
Mr. Singh said Imran Aziz alias Abu Salam was a terrorist, who was killed in a police encounter in November 2002 related to the Sai Baba Mandir, Dilsukh Nagar bomb blast in Hyderabad. The ADG said Taufeeq was arrested by the Tamil Nadu police in 2002. He was an accused in the Ghatkopar blast in December 2002 and was booked under POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act).
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Questionable activities
Interrogations have revealed that Taufeeq was associated with several organisations and is said to have told the police that he set up ‘New Vision' in 2002 and ‘Iraivan Oruvane' in 2007. He was again arrested by the Tamil Nadu police in 2008 on the suspicion that he was involved in questionable activities, Mr. Singh said.
Illegal crossing
The U.P. police officer said that after jumping bail in 2008, Taufeeq went to Bangladesh after illegally crossing the border. There, he married Salma in the hope of getting citizenship of the country.