Key LeT militant slips into Bangladesh

Top Lashkar-e-Tayiba militant Aslam Kashmiri, linked to the Varanasi terror attack and the July 11 train bombings in Mumbai, is believed to have fled to Bangladesh following the recent arrest of four LeT militants in Gujarat, official sources said on Wednesday.

The arrest of the militants over the past two days also pointed to the involvement of Kathmandu-based Pakistani national Junaid in planning terrorist acts in the country. Sources in the security agencies said the busting of a LeT cell in Ahmedabad following the arrest of the four men was the outcome of an extensive probe into the seizure of arms and explosive materials at Aurangabad in Maharashtra in May.

Aslam Kashmiri, believed to be a resident of Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir with links to terrorists in the Rajouri area, had visited Kolkata with Mohammed Illyas, one of the four men arrested in Gujarat, they said.

Sensing trouble, Kashmiri gave the slip to police and security agencies and managed to enter Bangladesh, from where he is believed to have fled to Pakistan, the sources said, adding that leads established during the seizures in Aurangabad revealed Kashmiri's involvement in supplying explosives and subsequently plans to use them for terrorist attacks.

Illyas told interrogators that he and Kashmiri visited Kathmandu, where they met the mysterious Junaid, whom the agencies know only as a Pakistani national

based in Nepal. His name first figured in the probe into the Varanasi blasts and subsequently in the July 11 Mumbai blasts that killed nearly 200 people.

Rahil and Zaibuddin Ansari, who are wanted by Maharashtra Police for the July 11 blasts, also met Junaid in Kathamandu ahead of the attacks on Mumbai's commuter trains, the sources said, adding that Illyas also travelled with Kashmiri to Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir where they allegedly indulged in 'brainwashing' people to join militant groups.

Senior police officials in Jammu and Kashmir are working to ascertain more details about Kashmiri, considered to be a 'smooth operator' in militant ranks.

Security agencies and police, meanwhile, are questioning Kashmiri's brother Mohammed Khalid Kashmiri to find out more about the functioning of LeT cells in the Ahmedabad area. Kashmiri's links with the Malegaon blasts was also not ruled out as interrogation of suspects revealed he was seen 'preaching and motivating cadres' during his stay at Tarakash Madrassa in Surat, the sources said

Illyas and Khalid were among four LeT militants arrested by Gujarat police following intelligence inputs from Central security agencies. The other two were Maulvi Kari and Siraj Ahmed. Documents including Urdu literature, the letterhead of the LeT, numerous CDs featuring Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Maulana Masood Azhar and a computer were seized. Gujarat Police have been on alert after the Mumbai train blasts and the Malegaon attacks and have intensified surveillance at all public places.