New Delhi: In a major breakthrough, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested a terrorist handler for Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group from the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on Sunday.
The arrested terrorist handler has been identified as Habibur Rahaman alias Habib, originally resident of Odisha’s Kendrapara. Habib is currently based out of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
According to NIA, Rahman was one of the handlers of LeT terrorist Shaikh Abdul Naeem alias Nomi.
Meanwhile, the anti-terror agency is producing Rehman in Delhi’s Patiala House Courts and is likely to seek his remand for interrogation.
Notably, Nomi was arrested while trying to infiltrate two Pakistani and one Kashmiri terrorist into India through Bangladesh in in 2007. However, he had escaped from custody while he was being taken for court attendance to Maharashtra from Kolkata in August, 2014.
Following the directions of his handlers based in Pakistan and in Saudi Arabia, he then joined terror operations after his escape from custody.
Shaikh Abdul Naeem’s work was to identify locations where terrorist attacks could be carried out. He had visited different states including Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh by assuming many fake identities.
According to NIA, Habibur Rahman used to arrange hideouts and funds for Shaikh Abdul Naeem to carry out terrorist activities in India on the directions of the LeT terrorist Amjad alias Rehan who is based in Pakistan. However, the NIA officials arrested Naeem again in Novevmber 2017. He has been charge-sheeted along with 10 other co-accused including Habibur Rehman.
Ms Kalinga