Arrested Indian Mujahideen terrorist had found love in Nepal

On the run since 2008, Ariz Khan alias Junaid, a key member of the terror group Indian Mujahideen, fell in love with a woman in Nepal as he lived a life in hiding and giving a slip to Indian intelligence agencies.  

The Delhi Police arrested him on Wednesday, a day after he was nabbed on the India-Nepal border near Banbasa in Uttarakhand.

Junaid (32) married a Hindu woman in Nepal around four years back who, after converting to Islam, was called Sarah, officials privy to details said. Sarah’s original name was Pamma and the 28-year-old was earlier married to a Pakistani and lived in Qatar with him before her marriage fell apart and she returned to Nepal.  

This is when she married Junaid who told her that he was going through some trouble and needs to be on the move regularly. “She had no clue of his background and never even visited Azamgarh, his home town in Uttar Pradesh,” said a police officer.

As a cover, Junaid took up a job as a school teacher in Nepal and lived with the name Salim.

Junaid was one of the suspects present in the Batla House flat where, in a shootout, Delhi Police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was killed as the raiding team gunned down the alleged terror ring leader, Atif Ameen. The encounter in September 2008, a week after serial blasts in Delhi,  triggered a controversy as many questioned the police’s version.

Other than the Batla House encounter, he was wanted in bomb blast cases in Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Hailing from Azamgarh in UP , he went to Aligarh for higher studies. After failing to clear engineering entrance exams, he shifted to Delhi for further preparation in 2004.