Sandeep Rai | TNN | Aug 7, 2017, 05:35 AM IST
MEERUT/LUCKNOW: UP police's anti-terrorist squad arrested a man from Muzaffarnagar district on Sunday who provided refuge, logistics and shelter to terrorists of Bangladesh and helped them in procuring Aadhaar cards.
Associated with Ansarullah Bangla Team, an extremist organisation banned for its role in killings of bloggers and bank heists in Bangladesh, Abdullah Al Mamon was arrested from Kutesara village in Meerut. More than a dozen fake government IDs, Aadhaar cards and seals of village pradhans, village development officers and tehsildars were recovered from him.
Inspector general of ATS, Asim Arun, said, "He was staying in Deoband since 2011 and was involved in providing safe shelter to Bangladesh-based terror modules. He revealed that his main task was to `settle' the members of ABT in India by providing them with fake Aadhaar IDs. He himself carried a fake passport."
Later, the ATS team along with police of three districts - Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar and Shamli - nabbed the main suspect's accomplices under DIG (Saharanpur range) and detained four persons.
"Two of them are from a madrassa in Shamli, one of whom is a Kashmiri student while the other one is from Bihar. The other two are from Deoband," additional director general (law & order) Anand Kumar told TOI. "We had been on Abdullah's trail and after his activities were confirmed, an FIR was registered on July 20. He was booked under IPC's section 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document as genuine) and relevant sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act."
According to security agencies, the kingpin of this network in the region may not be Abdullah, but one Mohd Faizan of Deoband, who is on the run. "We are concerned about Faizan because what we found in his house suggests their role was beyond settling ABT members in the region. We found jihadi literature, bomb-making manual among other things," ADG said.