Ganderbal resident arrested in Delhi for alleged LeT links

New Delhi, Mar 30: Delhi Police’s Special Cell on Monday said it has arrested a suspected operative of the Lashkar-e-Taiba from the Ghazipur area. The accused has been identified as Shabbir Ahmad Lone, a resident of Kangan area of central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district.
After his arrest, Shabir was produced before a court in Delhi, which sent him to five days of police custody.
Addressing a press conference here, Delhi Police Special Cell Additional CP Pramod Kushwah said Shabir was arrested from Ghazipur area last night in the recently busted LeT module in Metro Poster Case.
“Earlier, 8 people were arrested in this module and Rs 2,300 Bangladeshi taka were also recovered from his possession. He is a highly trained terrorist. He was working as a sleeper cell member and had pasted anti-national posters at multiple locations,” he said.
He added that Shabir was in touch with two handlers. His team has done recee of several locations and sent those image and videos to Pakistan. “A hardcore terrorist, he has established a launchpad in West Bengal. He also visited Delhi to identify and build new recruits,” he said.
He said that the module was supposed to get task from Lashkar and they wanted to target commercial areas. “In order to merge with local population, he got married again in Bangladesh. Out of 8 arrested, seven were Bangladeshi and one was Indian. Earlier, this module was busted so he was planning to create another module and we again busted it,” the officer said.
He also that so far Shabir’s connection with the Delhi blast case has not been established. “We have just arrested him, once will get police custody then more details will come out in questioning. We have also recovered Rs 5,000 Pakistani currency and Rs 3,000 Indian currency,” he said.
Shabir Ahmad Lone alias Raja Kashmiri son of Mohammad Akbar Lone of Kangan was previously arrested by Special Cell in 2007 along with heavy cache of Arms and Ammunition including Ak-47 and grenades.
An official said that he was in Tihar Jail till 2018. “At the time of his arrest in 2007, Shabir had direct links with head of Jamat-Ut-Dawa – terrorist Hafiz Saeed and his terror deputy Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi,” he said. (KNO)