Indian Mujahideen operative arrested

DH News Service, New Delhi, Feb 14 2018, 16:52 IST

Ariz Khan alias Junaid is reportedly involved in serial blasts in Delhi, Varanasi, Jaipur and Uttar Pradesh. Image Courtesy: Twitter/ANI

A suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorist, who managed to flee during the Batla House encounter in Delhi 10 years ago, was arrested from the Indo-Nepal border four days ago, police said on Wednesday.

Ariz Khan alias Junaid, who carries a reward of Rs 10 lakh announced by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), is reportedly involved in serial blasts in Delhi, Varanasi, Jaipur and Uttar Pradesh.

He was closely associated with the Bhatkal brothers - Yasin and Iqbal - who co-founded the Indian Mujahideen.

The 32-year-old's arrest by the Delhi Police's Special Cell comes three week after the elite anti-terror force apprehended another suspected IM operative Abdul Subhan Qureshi (46), a software engineer-turned-bombmaker, from east Delhi after a brief gunbattle.

The NIA had filed a case against Junaid and 11 others, including the Bhatkal brothers, in September 2012 for entering into a conspiracy to wage war against the country.

Junaid's name figures in the chargesheet the agency filed in a special court in September 2014.

Altogether, the NIA has pressed charges against 33 suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists.

According to the NIA chargesheet, Junaid is one of the "principal conspirators and executioners" of various "heinous terrorist acts in different parts of India along with Bhatkal brothers, Amir Reza Khan, Tahsin Akthar and Azadullah Akthar.

Junaid, who hails from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, had managed to escape from Batla House in south Delhi when special cell sleuths surrounded them in their flat, while Atif Ameen, the head of Azamgarh module of the IM, was killed along with another operative, six days after the Delhi serial blasts in 2008.

Two others were arrested from the spot. Ameen had "radicalised" Junaid along with 17 others who formed the module.

Junaid's arrest from the Indo-Nepal border while trying to enter India showes that some of the fugitive IM operatives are holed up in the neighbouring country.

Qureshi, who was arrested on January 22, was also in Nepal for a long time before he sneaked into India.