ATS busts Lashkar module

MUMBAI: With the formal arrest on Tuesday of two more persons, the ATS claims to have busted an active module of the Pakistan-based Lashkar -e-Tayiba.

The ATS said Sohail Sheikh, a chemical engineer from Pune, and Jameel Sheikh, a lock-and-key-maker from Aurangabad, who were both detained on Sunday, have confessed to being members of the LeT module.

At the same time, the crime branch of the city police has detained two other suspected members of Sohail’s module and is on the lookout for a third member.

The ATS said Sohail had come in contact with LeT recruiters when he had gone to Dubai in 2004-05.

At their behest, he set up a module of the organisation in Pune to provide logistical support to another module in Mumbai that the ATS believes was led by Unani doctor Tanveer Ansari, who was arrested on Monday.  

Currently, Sohail’s module was the only active one. Hence, the ATS hopes to unravel the LeT terror network with his arrest. Most of the other LeT modules suspected to exist in the state are currently believed to be in sleeper cell mode.

The ATS is also trying to establish if Sohail’s cell had any links with the three Kashmiri youths and the Haj House imam arrested in Nagpada, Mumbai, in January this year.

The officers believe Sohail was planning to carry out a big operation in Pune and Aurangabad in February, but was forced to postpone it after the Nagpada arrests.
Sohail and Jameel will be produced in the Mazgaon court today.