Aftab is currently lodged in Lucknow jail (Representational)
Suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Saleem Khan, who was arrested from Mumbai airport on July 16, was produced before a local court in Lucknow on Friday and remanded to seven-day police custody. IG (ATS) Asim Arun said Saleem would be interrogated about his alleged links with terror groups, particularly alleged ISI spy Aftab Ali, who was arrested from Faizabad in May. Aftab is currently lodged in Lucknow jail.
Saleem’s name had first come up in police records after two jailed accused in the 2008 Rampur CRPF camp attack case, Shareef and Mohammad Kausar, allegedly claimed that Saleem had been part of an LeT training camp in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan in 2007, where they had met him. Soon after he landed at Mumbai airport, a joint team of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra ATS arrested Saleem. He was soon brought by the UP ATS to Lucknow on a transit remand.
During his primary interrogation with the ATS, Saleem had allegedly said he had been living in Al Ain city in the UAE. After his visa expired in 2005, he had gone into hiding in the city. Al Ain police caught and imprisoned him for a month recently, following which he was deported to India on July 16 this year.
The ATS is likely to interrogate Saleem — who hails from Bandipur village in Hathgawan area of Fatehpur — about those who attended the training camp at Muzaffarabad, how long he was at the camp and also about his involvement in terror cases. He will also likely be questioned about whether he has made use of forged passports, and if so, how many.
