Hyderabad city police has released a list of 33 youth from the old city of Hyderabad, who have been 'missing' for several years and many of them are believed to be based in different countries and allegedly working with terrorist and fundamentalist organisations like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
The list, prepared by the Special Investigations Team and the counter-intelligence wing of the police, ranges from the youth who were missing for last one-and-a-half decade to several others who have been untraceable since last year's series of blasts in the city.
The police have come out with the list after at least two of the missing youth reappeared in the city with arms and fired at the police, injuring two head constables. The names of Viqaruddin Ahmad and his cousin Syed Amjad figure in the list. The police have already arrested Syed Amjad and was looking for Viqar in connection with Wednesday's incident in Santoshnagar area of the old city.
The police sources said both Viqar and Amjad had gone missing soon after the blast in Mecca Masjid in May 2007. "When we learnt that Viqaruddin had returned, we tried to nab him to find out where he was till now. But he managed to escape after firing at the policemen. We have Amjad in custody and trying to find where he was during last one and a half years."
The list of the untraceable youth include Abdul Bari alias Abu Hamza from Nalgonda. He is on the list of wanted persons for the last 15 years and the police believe that from his base in Saudi Arabia, Abdul Bari has been recruiting Hyderabadi youth for armed training in Pakistan and that he has links with ISI as well as the LeT.
Similarly, Farhatullah Ghouri alias Abu Sufian is also unaccounted for the last fifteen years and the police suspect that he too was an operative of LeT.
Another interesting name on the list is 21-year-old Shaikh Najiullah, who went missing in 2005 from Saudi Arabia. His grandfather and founder of fundamentalist organisation Darasgahe Jehad O Shahadat Shaikh Mahboob Ali has also admitted that Najiullah was taken away by ISI agents to Pakistan for armed training.
What has made the police worried about these youth is that their families have also not lodged any missing complaint with the police. It has made the police smell a rat.
The names in the list include:
- 40-year-old Zakiur Rahman, (missing for 15 years believed to be an LeT activist based in Saudi Arabia)
- Mohammed Abdul Aziz (missing since 2004, believed to be activist of LeT)
- Muqtadar (missing since 1993)
- Mohammed Minhajuddin alias Faseehuddin, Abdullah Masood and Osman Bin Sayeed (all missing since 1998)
- Mohammed Abdul Ahad, brother of Mohammed Shahed Bilal, (missing since 2004 and believed to be in Gulf)
- Syed Aqeel (missing since 2002)
- Aslam Khan (missing since 2003)
- Mohammed Afroz and Syed Abdul Rahman Hussain alias Bada Sajid (missing since 1998)
- Mohammed Sajid alias Chota Sajid (missing since 2008)
- Afsar alias Mansoor (missing since 1998)
- M A Qayoom (missing since 2004)
- Feroze Khan alias Baba (witness of Task Force office blast missing since 2005)
- Syed Nadeemullah Hussain alias Farhan (missing since 2006)
- Mohammed Nazeer Ahmad, Siddique Bin Osman, Mohammed Hadi alias Zahed (missing since 2002).
The list once included the name of Mohammed Shahid alias Shahid Bilal, and police has suspected his hand in several acts of terror and described him as a key operative of LeT. But his name was deleted after the reports that he along with his another brother Abdul Samad were killed in a Karachi shootout in August last year, a few days after the twin blasts in Hyderabad. However, the name of his brother Abdul Ahad figures in the list.
The police sources said they have already provided the list of these untraceable youth to the Intelligence Bureau and Research and Analysis Wing, India's external spy agency to take necessary measures for their extradition and to arrest them.
Police officials say while most of these youth were in other countries, including Pakistan and Bangladesh, some could have settled in other states by getting jobs there.