Terror suspect Abdullah, who was sent to five-day police custody, at a Lucknow court on Tuesday. Vishal Srivastav
THE UP ATS is probing whether Faizan, an alleged member of Bangladeshi terror group Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), planned to recruit youths by offering them training in martial arts at Deoband in Saharanpur.
Bangladeshi native Faizan, who allegedly holds a key post in ABT, is absconding. He is reportedly an associate of Abdullah, who was arrested from Muzaffarnagar by the ATS on Sunday. Abdullah was produced before a Lucknow court on Tuesday, which sent him to five-day police custody.
“ATS had requested for Abdullah’s 10-day custody to question him at length,” Inspector General (ATS) Asim Kumar Arun said. Officials said the Saharanpur SSP has been asked to probe how Abdullah managed to get a passport using a local address.
According to ATS, Abdullah was helping Faizan in preparing fake IDs, mostly for people from Bangladesh, to help them find safe hideouts in India. Officials have also allegedly recovered “jihadi literature” and books on assembling bombs at Faizan’s rented accommodation in Deoband. “While scanning the seized documents, we found pamphlets carrying advertisements of a Kung Fu training centre being opened in Deoband. Several blank identity cards, printed for trainees of the martial art centre, too were recovered. The identity cards display the name ‘Martial Arts New — Shoalin Tiger Kung Fu Club’ at Deoband in Saharanpur,” said an ATS official.
The ATS is now trying to find the spot where Faizan planned to open the centre and if youths had applied for admission.
