Suspected LeT terrorist Saleem Khan arrested in Mumbai days after J&K police busts terror module

Suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Saleem Mukim Khan, who was absconding for the past nine years, was arrested from the Mumbai airport on Monday evening, reported ANI. Khan, who hails from Fatehpur’s Hathgaon village in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested in a joint operation by Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS),  NewsX reported.

Visual of Suspected LeT terrorist Saleem Khan, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Fatehpur arrested from Mumbai airport. pic.twitter.com/CwWnqEPnX2

— ANI (@ANI) July 17, 2017

NDTV reported that Khan had arrived in Mumbai from the United Arab Emirates. This arrest comes days after Jammu and Kashmir police busted a Lashkar-e-Taiba module and arrested two people.  Sandeep Sharma alias Adil , a resident of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, was also questioned last week by the Uttar Pradesh ATS after the arrest. Investigators said that based on a lookout notice issued for him, Khan was detained at Mumbai Airport. The UP ATS was informed, which sent a team to Mumbai for further investigations. Two terrorists nabbed for the 2008 attack on a CRPF camp in Rampur had told police that Khan had acquired terror training in a terrorist camp in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. He was also a handler for a Pakistan ISI agent Aftab, who was nabbed in Faizabad. Khan sent finances to Aftab, according to investigations. Long on the radar of the UP ATS after the terror strikes on the Rampur CRPF Camp on 1 January 2008, Khan had several offences registered against him under the Indian Penal Code, Arms Act, Explosive Substances Act, Foreigner Registration Act, etc. Seven Central Reserve Police Force personnel were among eight persons killed and five injured when in the 1 January  2008, attack by heavily-armed terrorists on a camp of the paramilitary force in Rampur. After the arrest, the UP ATS took custody of Khan for involvement in various terrorist and anti-national strikes for which they have registered cases. Khan operated his accounts with the name of Salim Danish, an intelligence source said in Lucknow. Two senior officials of the Uttar Pradesh ATS, who are part of the six-member team that laid its hands on Khan, are bringing him to New Delhi, where the IG of the ATS Aseem Arun and other investigative agencies are likely to question him “on various leads”. The LeT operative is later likely to brought to Lucknow on transit remand for further interrogation as the ATS tries to crack a sleeper module of the terror network. Security and intelligence forces in Uttar Pradesh are on high alert after a substantial amount of PETN explosive was recovered from inside the state assembly. With inputs from IANS