Alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative Sameer alias Nayeem’s bid to escape from police custody was today foiled by the Hyderabad police when three constables caught hold of him after chasing him for two kilometres through narrow bylanes of the city. Sameer is a suspect in the Mecca Masjid Bomb blast that took place in May.

Hyderabad Police had recently taken custody of the LeT operative from their Mumbai counterparts, who were questioning him for his links in the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai’s local trains.

Sameer almost escaped from the Mahankali police station in Secunderabad this morning. Police officials said he wanted to go to the toilet and was escorted there inside the station premises. Once he reached the toilet, Sameer attacked the constable accompanying him, scaled a 15-foot high wall and escaped.

According to Kamlasan Reddy, DCP, Commissioner’s Task Force, three constables immediately gave chase. Reddy said the chase led the policemen through two kilometres of narrow bylanes before they were finally able to catch hold of Sameer, who was returned to the lock-up.

The Special Investigation Cell (SIC) probing the Mecca Masjid blast had brought Sameer from Mumbai to Hyderabad on June 6 on a transit warrant for interrogating him. The Hyderabad police had also accessed details of his narco-analysis, in which he said he had transported four Bangladeshi nationals into India.

He was arrested by the BSF along the Indo-Bangladesh border when he was trying to get into India with some foreign nationals. He was then taken to Mumbai and was under the custody of Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad.

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