Three Manipuri youths suspected to be members of the Lashker-e-Taiba were arrested on Tuesday near the busy Red Fort area.
NEW DELHI: Three Manipuri youths suspected to be members of the Lashker-e-Taiba were arrested on Tuesday near the busy Red Fort area here — the first instance of the Pakistan-based terror group recruiting cadres from a northeastern state.
Salman Khurshid Kori (23), Abdur Rehman (24) and Mohammad Akbar Hussain (20), who were allegedly planning blasts in the busy markets of the Capital, were arrested by special cell sleuths of the Delhi Police as soon as they alighted from a bus coming from Jammu opposite the Red Fort area around 7:30 am.
“All the youths hail from Manipur,” Joint Commissioner (special cell) Karnal Singh said.
“This is for the first time that nexus of LeT with groups in the north-east has come to light, thereby implying that LeT is trying to create a base for itself in the north-east,” he added.
He said two kg RDX, two detonators and one hand grenede was seized from their possession.
The trio has links with two LeT terrorists, hailing from Bangladesh, who were arrested in the capital on October 16, days ahead of Diwali. Singh said the two Bangladeshi terrorists had come to deliver RDX to the trio from Manipur in October but were intercepted by the special cell sleuths.
“We had been on their trail since October,” he said. Singh said the interrogation of the militants revealed that they were planning to carry out blasts in the busy market areas of the capital. The 23-year-old Khurshid had undergone training in Pak-occupied-Kashmir at the instance of Salim Salar alias Doctor, who was killed in an encounter by the Uttar Pradesh police in the aftermath of terror attacks in Varanasi. In October 2004, he along with 10 others crossed the Line of Control in Kashmir and trained with terrorists of the region, Singh said. Khurshid was asked by LeT commanders Abu Faris and Abu Furkan to recruit Manipuri youth for LeT.
He had also visited Delhi, Aligarh, Bangalore, Mumbai and Manipur in this connection and had sent three persons, including Rehman and Hussain, for terror training in Kashmir. Delhi police have arrested 33 terrorists so far this year and recovered 43 kg of RDX from them, Singh said.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}