LeT’s head-hunter arrested

Even as the southern states are on high alert following intelligence warnings of a terrorist strike, the Delhi Police have arrested a key operative of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) who was helping the outfit build its network in the country.

Mohammad Umer Madani, 50, was told to recruit educated youths, especially computer professionals, from the metros and good sailors from Kerala, the police said.

He is believed to have sent at least 30 youths for training in LeT camps in Pakistan, including 2006 Mumbai train blasts accused Kamal Ansari.

Madani, the India-born chief of LeT in Nepal, was arrested near the Qutub Minar on Thursday by a special cell of the Delhi Police. He had reportedly come to deliver funds and fake currency to a contact named Ahmed from Patna.

Union home minister P Chidambaram said Madani was linked with Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, who founded the Jamaat-ud-Daawa after Pakistan banned the LeT.

Madani’s arrest came even as sources in the home ministry said that a group of at least three LeT operatives had entered India, from Pakistan or Bangladesh, with instructions to carry out attacks in cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, or Chennai. As the advisories could not pinpoint the target, all southern states are on high alert.

While Chidambaram played down the intelligence warnings as inputs that “regularly come to us”, he said Madani’s arrest was a “measure of the good intelligence and investigative work done by our agencies and police”.

Originally from a village called Balkatwa in Madhubani district of Bihar, Madani has been living in Nepal for 25 years and used to run his operations from there, said PN Aggarwal, ACP (special cell).

“Madani had a black bag containing $8,000, fake Indian currency worth Rs50,000, and 4,067 Nepali rupees. The bag also contained a Nepali citizenship card, driving licence, code matrix, train tickets, receipts of STD/ISD calls made to Pakistan and Nepal, and a diary written in Urdu,” said Aggarwal.  

A case under relevant sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Indian Penal Code has been registered against Madani, who was remanded in 14 days police custody.

“He disclosed that he did his maulviat from Zamia Salafia in Rewari Talab area of Varanasi from 1969-1978. His brother Hafiz Mohd Zubiar is also working for the Lashkar in Qatar. He also built two madrassas in Nepal,” said Aggarwal.

Madani, Aggarwal said, told the police that he veered towards the Laskhar in 1996 after meeting two members of Saeed’s seminary Markaz Daawa-Wal-Irshad in Muridke near Lahore. The duo, Khalid Saifi and Abdul, motivated him to visit Lahore, where he took basic (Daura-e-Aam) and advanced (Daura-e-Khas) training in combat in 1998 in LeT camps, police said.

“He also met top leaders of the Jamaat and Lashkar, including Saeed, who motivated him to choose youngsters in India for training,” Aggarwal said.

Motivated by the JuD brass, he then opened a travel agency called Nice Tours and Travels in Kathmandu as a front for his “illegal activities”. Madani later “met Saeed many times”, Aggarwal said.

In 2000, he was asked to also supply funds to terrorists, police said.

“During one of his visits to India in 2008, he was told to choose graduates with computer expertise from Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Madras, and Jharkhand. He was also told to choose boys from Kerala who knew how to sail,” said Aggarwal.

The police said Madani was also told to select a man in Jammu to send money to Srinagar.

With inputs from Anil Anand