Nabi may have crossed over to Pak in 2006, joined anti-India terror module, cops say
Maharashtra Police on Monday said Indian national Sheikh Nabi Ahmed, who was arrested in Pakistan on May 19, could be a SIMI member who was on their radar in 2005-2006, and they were in touch with the Centre on the details of the man arrested.
Maharashtra ATS, in a statement issued on Monday evening, said: "As gathered from the news, one Indian national called Nabi has been detained by Pakistan authorities for not having proper documentation. From available records, there is one Nabi who has figured in the interrogation of people connected with SIMI in 2005-06. It is not known whether he is the same Nabi. We are in touch with the Government of India for getting further details."
Top sources, however, told DNA that there was "strong indication" that the man arrested in Islamabad was Nabi, alias Taj Ahmed Raees Sheikh, a former member of the banned SIMI, who was associated with a local terror module that was under the radar of security agencies in Mumbai more than a decade ago.
Pakistan had claimed on Sunday that Nabi was arrested for 'overstaying'.
But if Maharashtra Police sources are to be believed, Nabi had crossed over to Pakistan on his own as early as in 2006 for terror training, and is believed to have joined an anti-India terror group there.
In fact, almost six months after he left home, he informed a close relative through e-mail that he was in Pakistan, sources added. His family has not filed a missing person's complaint till date.
"Nabi's name had cropped up in connection with a terror module that was under watch in Mumbai more than a decade ago. Some suspects in a case that was being probed at the time had named Nabi as a member of the terror module. These men were former SIMI members. Bada Imran and Chhota Imran were two other members who were recruited for the module," said a Maharashtra Police source.
"We are in touch with the Ministry of External Affairs, and are providing them details about his antecedents in Mumbai," the source added.
Reports of Nabi's arrest in Islamabad come in the wake of heightened tensions between India and Pakistan over the death sentence handed over to former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage.
According to Pakistani media reports, Nabi was taken into custody on May 19 after he failed to produce any travel or visa documents. A case was registered under the Foreigners' Act, 1946, and he was remanded in judicial custody.
Nabi was arrested while taking a stroll through the Nizamuddin Road in Sector F-8 in Islamabad when he was stopped at a check post. After he informed the police that he was an Indian, he was asked for visa documents, which he failed to produce, the reports said.
...& ANALYSIS
- Pak’s arrest of the ‘Indian national’ is part of a diplomatic smear campaign against India
- Islamabad seems to be clutching at straws after the blow it got at ICJ in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case.
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