Missing Saharanpur man held in Kerala for ‘terror links’

LUCKNOW : Saharanpur resident Mohammed Gulnawaz, who had been missing for over 12 years, was arrested from Thiruvananthapuram international airport in Kerala on Tuesday for his alleged links with terror outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba and Al Qaeda, said UP Anti Terror Squad (ATS) officials privy to the investigation here on Wednesday. They said NIA arrested him and ATS was exploring his network in Saharanpur and elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh.

LUCKNOW : Saharanpur resident Mohammed Gulnawaz, who had been missing for over 12 years, was arrested from Thiruvananthapuram international airport in Kerala on Tuesday for his alleged links with terror outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba and Al Qaeda, said UP Anti Terror Squad (ATS) officials privy to the investigation here on Wednesday.

They said National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested him and ATS was exploring his network in Saharanpur and elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh.

A senior UP ATS official said Gulnawaz was also suspected to be involved in serial blasts in Bengaluru on July 25, 2008 in which one person was killed and 20 others were seriously injured.

Two other people were arrested and sent to jail in connection with those blasts while Gulnawaz managed to escape from the country, the official added. He said the police were yet to find out about his family members and relatives staying in Saharanpur and other parts of the state.

“We are in touch with NIA officials to get more details about Gulnawaz so that his network could be explored in Uttar Pradesh,” additional director general (ADG) of UP ATS DK Thakur said.

Another ATS official said Gulnawaz’s name also surfaced in connection with the operation of a ‘hawala’ (illegal money transfer) network from Dubai in 2016. After that, NIA had issued a lookout notice for him and was searching for him. He said Gulnawaz’s arrival at Thiruvananthapuram international airport was revealed by three alleged Al-Qaeda operatives held by NIA after a raid on a migrant workers’ settlement in Kochi in the early hours of Saturday, he added.

All the three men arrested from Kochi—Murshid Hasan, Iyakub Biswas and Mosaraf Hossen— belonged to West Bengal and they were discreetly staying as migrant workers, the official said. The ATS official said Gulnawaz was said to be the handler of the three suspects and they were planning a series of attacks in major cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Kochi. He also said they were in touch with one another through the encrypted Telegram app.