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Delhi police arrest 5 Pak militants

The police have unearthed a major conspiracy by the Lashkar-i-Toiba, a pro-Pakistan militant outfit, to trigger explosions in the Delhi cantonment area. They have arrested five Pakistani insurgents and recovered explosives including RDX.

Delhi Police Commissioner V N Singh told reporters that four people, including three Pakistani nationals and a Burmese settled in Bahawalpur (Pakistan), were apprehended from the New Delhi railway station on Thursday, following information provided by some detained Kashmiri militants.

Two kilogrammes of RDX and 10 detonators were recovered from them.

Earlier on Thursday, the police had arrested a woman Kashmiri militant from the walled city. The 22-year-old woman, a member of the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, the women's militant wing operating in Jammu and Kashmir, planned to carry out explosions in the capital on August 15.

The Delhi police crime branch have, since January 1, arrested 24 Kashmiri militants including eight from Pakistan, four from Bangladesh and one from Myanmar, according to Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime branch) Karnail Singh.

Singh said the four were nabbed as soon as they arrived from West Bengal by Poorva Express. During interrogation they disclosed that they were planning to strike in the capital, especially in the cantonment area. They also planned to sabotage vital installations in and around Delhi.

For carrying out these, they had ordered 200 kg RDX, hand grenades, AK rifles and pistols, remote control devices, wireless sets and explosives.

The police commissioner said some Lashkar-i-Toiba militants, responsible for the serial blasts in Delhi, were apprehended in February. They belonged to a group controlled by three Pakistani nationals Zaki-ur-Rehman, Azam Cheema and Abdul Karim Tunda. As a follow-up, one Junaid was arrested from Hyderabad by the inter-state cell of the crime branch. Junaid's interrogation led to the arrest of his associates and the recovery of 18 kg RDX.

Acting on a tip-off provided by the interstate cell, the four Pakistani nationals -- Abu Sayeed from Faisalabad, Abu Waleed from Karachi, Abu Shoeb from Muzaffargarh and Alam from Bahawalpur (originally from Myanmar) -- were arrested while they were coming from Calcutta.

During interrogation the four militants disclosed that Abu Sayeed had undergone arms training in Pakistan, and had infiltrated into India from the Bhuj sector in Gujarat in April 1997. After entering India he tried to settle down at Baroda, Surat, Salda and Sirsa, but was not successful. He later settled down in Hyderabad with his associates Azam Cheema and Saleem Junaid.

Sayeed also ran a pottery shop in Khurja, Uttar Pradesh. He had built a bunker where he allegedly concealed arms and explosives.

UNI

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