ATS says Antop Hill accused is JeM man

The anti-terrorism squad (ATS) has confirmed that Mohammad Riyaz Nababuddin, who was arrested from Wadala on Tuesday as part of the Antop Hill operation, is a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) trained terrorist. But the agency has yet to confirm whether his partner, Mohammad Ali alias Abu Osama, who was killed in the encounter, was also a member of the group.

A senior ATS officer said that Riyaz had been in the country for the past eight months.

“Riyaz belongs to Jaish,” said KP Raghuvanshi, joint commissioner of police and ATS chief. “He temporarily lived in Dehradun after visiting Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi. In Dehradun, he assumed a Hindu name and got a job with a private company.”

But the ATS chief refused to link Riyaz with two alleged Pakistani terrorists arrested by the Kolkata police recently. Mohammad Zuber and Mohammad Sohail were intercepted by the BSF and handed over to the Kolkata police after they crossed over into India from Bangladesh. According to the cops, Riyaz was in possession of a map which had “precise” markings on it.