Rediff.com« Back to articlePrint this article

ISI agent arrested in Hyderabad

June 16, 2007 20:31 IST

The special investigation cell of the Hyderabad city police has arrested an Inter Services Intelligence agent Mohammed Abdul Sattar alias Sattar and seized provocative Urdu literature and VCD on the activities of mujahideen in the name of jihad.

Acting on a tip-off, the commissioner's special investigation cell arrested the accused on Friday near Secunderabad railway station while moving under suspicious circumstances with a travel bag.

On interrogation, he confessed that he had illegally crossed Bangladesh border twice and involved in ISI activities, City Police Commissioner Balwinder Singh said in a statement.

Sattar, a mechanic by occupation and resident of First Lancer locality in Hyderabad, further confessed that he had attended classes run by a local Muslim organization Darsgah-Jihad-o-Shahadath in 2002 and had undergone terrorist training in Pakistan in 2004 through contact with ISI activists under the leadership of Shahed alias Bilal and Fayyaq alias Amer.

He was trained in physical fitness, handling of weapons, firing practice of field machine gun and light machine gun, pistol, grenade lobbing, prepation of explosives for about two and a half months.

During his stay for the second time in Bangladesh, he learnt to prepare bombs with the latest technology. Shahed alias Bilal handed over jihadi literature and VCDs on mujahideen activities with instructions to recruit youth for training in Pakistan and to motivate them for jihadi activities. He returned back to Hyderabad to carry out ISI activities.

The accused was earlier involved in an attempt to murder case in 2005 at Rajendranagar police station in Cyberabad.

The Hyderabad police registered a case against him in the instant case under Sections 120 (B), 125 and 126 of the Indian Penal Code. The accused was produced before a magistrate on Saturday. He was remanded him to judicial custody for 15 days.

Curiously, the police statement nowhere mentioned that he was linked to the bomb blast in Mecca Masjid during Friday prayers on May 18 in which five worshippers were killed and 58 others injured.

It may be recalled that the special investigation cell was formed by the city police to investigate the Mecca Masjid bomb blast case. The CBI has also begun its probe into the incident.

Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad