NEW DELHI, Apr 7: Five persons, including two Pakistani nationals, were arrested on Tuesday by the J&K Police while investigating cross-State modules of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Officials said around 19 locations in J&K, Rajasthan and Haryana were searched to bust the LeT module. Preliminary reports suggested one of the arrested Pakistanis was operating in the country for around 16 years. Three residents of Srinagar were also held for allegedly harbouring the terrorists from Pakistan. Initial reports pointed out recovery of incriminating material too from the locations raided.
Meanwhile, official sources said a wanted Pakistani terrorist managed to leave India with the help of local conduits from Rajasthan. The J&K police have not issued any statement yet over the arrests and the cross-States module.
The Special Cell of Delhi Police had last week arrested a suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) handler from Ghazipur area in Delhi. The arrest of Shabir Ahmed Lone, according to the police, had come after the police learnt about his connections with the “anti-India” posters in several Delhi metro stations on February 22.
Calling Lone a “hardcore and highly-trained terrorist,” the officials said he had reportedly established links with handlers operating on behalf of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). “Lone, also known by aliases Raja and Kashmiri, is a resident of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir and was allegedly operating as the handler of a recently-busted module involved in pasting anti-national posters across multiple locations in Delhi and Kolkata,” a senior police officer had said.
“The module was being run at the behest of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), with Lone acting as a key conduit between handlers based abroad and operatives on the ground in India,” the officer said. He further said that Lone has a long history of involvement in terror activities and had been previously arrested in 2007 by the Special Cell. At that time, an AK-47 rifle and a hand grenade were recovered from his possession. He was again arrested in 2015 in Srinagar.
“The arrest of Lone marks a significant breakthrough in the ongoing investigation into the metro poster case, which had triggered security concerns earlier this year,” the officer added.
The accused was arrested after a manhunt led by DCP Praveen Tripathi. “During the arrest, police recovered multiple foreign currencies and other incriminating material from his possession. These included approximately 2,300 units of Bangladeshi Taka, 1,400 units of Nepalese currency, 5,000 units of Pakistani currency, and 3,000 units of Indian currency,” a senior officer said. A Nepalese SIM card was also seized, raising suspicions about cross-border communication and operational coordination.
“Lone is trained to execute targeted killings. He is a highly trained operative who has undergone terror training ‘Daura-e-Aam’ (basic terror training) and ‘Daura-e-Khaas’ (advanced terror training) from the Muzaffarabad LeT camp in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir,” the officer added. He further said following his release, the accused allegedly fled to Bangladesh and began rebuilding a fresh terror network targeting India.
During his stay in Bangladesh, Lone reportedly established links with new handlers affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba. These handlers, identified by their code names Abu Huzaifa and Sumama Babar, were operating on behalf of ISI. The officer added that the investigation revealed Lone’s task was to resume terror activities in India by activating sleeper cells and recruiting fresh operatives. “He used Bangladesh as a base to facilitate infiltration and coordination,” the officer said.
The probe revealed that Lone had set up an operational base in Kolkata, which served as a launch pad for activities across multiple States. From this base, the module carried out a “test run” by pasting pro-Pakistan and anti-national posters at prominent locations in Delhi and Kolkata, assessing their operational capabilities and response mechanisms.
The operatives also conducted reconnaissance of several sensitive locations across the country, including temples and high-footfall public places. Videos of these reconnaissance missions were recorded and transmitted to handlers in Pakistan, police said.
He is currently being interrogated to identify other associates, financial links, and potential targets, police said. “Possible hawala channels and cross-border funding mechanisms connected to the recovered foreign currencies are also being probed,” the officer added.
(Manas Dasgupta)