Arrested suspect has links with Saeed: PC

The terror suspect arrested in the capital has links with Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Saeed, Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Friday.

"The man arrested in Delhi does have links with Hafeez Saeed," he told reporters when asked about the arrest of Mohammed Omar Madni by the Special Cell of Delhi Police on Thursday.

Complimenting the Delhi police for the arrest, he said, "It is a measure of the good intelligence and good investigative work done by our intelligence agencies and police."

Arrested Pakistani national Mohammad Omar Madni is a top aide of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed, a prime accused in the terror attack on Mumbai, police said on Friday.

Madni was arrested on Thursday evening by the Delhi police's elite anti-terror wing Special Cell from near the Qutab Minar in southern Delhi.

"He is a close aide of Hafiz Saeed and has been operating from Nepal for the past one year," a senior Delhi police official said.

Madni has been a close aide of Saeed since 2000 and was involved in recruiting cadres for the Lashkar-e-Tayiba outfit, he said.

The United Nations Security Council had banned JuD, declaring it a front for the LeT. Saeed, a prime accused in the Mumbai attacks case, was set free on Wednesday by the Lahore High Court, after a six-month detention.

Madni sent many youths to terror training camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, besides using the porous Indo-Nepal border to send his people, the official said.

The police have recovered a Nepali citizenship card from Madni, who entered Bihar from Nepal, but they believe he is a Pakistani national.

A railway ticket from Aligarh to Delhi was also found in his possession. The police also recovered $8,000, Rs 15,000 (Indian) and Rs 4,000 (Nepalese), besides an identity card and driving license from him.