Officials said that whether suspects have had any links to the faction Ansar Gazawat-ul Hind was being probed.(Representational/file)A team of Maharashtra’s Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested one more suspect from Jammu and Kashmir in connection with the case in which a 28-year-old man was held from Pune for his alleged links with banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), officials said Thursday.
On May 23, the state ATS had arrested Mohammed Junaid Mohammed Ata, who had been working at the shop of a scrap dealer in Pune’s Dapodi. The investigators had at the time identified three more alleged terror operatives from Jammu and Kashmir who were said to be in contact with Junaid either directly or through phone-based messenger applications.
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A senior official from the Maharashtra ATS said that their team, which had gone to Jammu and Kashmir in connection with their probe, has arrested a suspect identified as Aftab Shah from the northern state’s Kishtwar area. Along with Shah, the ATS had named Hamidullah Zargar from Kulgam and Omar as wanted persons in the case.
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“The team took Shah’s transit remand from a court in Kishtwar on Wednesday and will reach Pune by tonight (Thursday night). He will be produced before a court in Pune on Friday, where we will seek his police custody,” an official from the ATS said.
After Junaid’s arrest, the agency had said that it is mainly probing his and the involvement of three others in funding, recruitment and procurement of arms and ammunition for the LeT as well as arms training for other operatives.
Following Junaid’s arrest, among various digital leads that the Maharashtra ATS is probing are at least five Facebook accounts which were used to communicate with the youth and encourage them to join the banned outfit by instigating communal sentiments.
ATS sleuths have claimed that they have investigated a messenger based group, Ansar Gazawat-ul Hind Tawheed, formed by Zargar in which several anti-national terror activities were discussed and planned since 2021 and the members were allegedly brainwashed. Junaid, who was part of the group, was in direct contact with Zargar, Shah, and Omar. Their probe has also revealed that Junaid had received two transfers of Rs 5,000 each from them.
Officials said Ansar Gazawat-ul Hind is the name of a faction known to have affiliations to Al Qaeda. The LeT is known to have links with the faction. Officials said that whether suspects have had any links to the faction Ansar Gazawat-ul Hind was being probed.
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