The alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative Mohammad Aslam alias Saleem, arrested in Delhi last Tuesday, had joined the group while studying at a madrasa in Surat in 2000. He was playing the role of a motivator for the outfit in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.

This was revealed by Aslam before the state ATS team during his interrogation in Delhi.

According to Aslam, he completed his “Alim and Fazil” — equivalent to graduate and post-graduate respectively — degrees at the Darul Uloom Falah madarsa at Tarkeshwar in Surat between 1993 and 2002. Thereafter, he studied Arabic from Nadwatul in Lucknow till 2003 and resided in the seminary hostel.

He then left Nadwatul hostel and stayed at Arif Lodge in Daliganj while pursuing his Masters in Arabic at Lucknow University between 2003 and 2005. According to an ATS officer, Aslam came in contact with an LeT commander at J&K while he was studying at the Surat madrasa. The commander had provided him with the basic guidance to motivate the youngsters to join them. While staying at Lucknow, Aslam had attended meetings of the LeT modules at Indore in MP and Buxar in Bihar.

After he left Lucknow, he visited Gujarat once and Maharashtra thrice in 2006 and then shifted to Pakistan in 2007 after he was informed by the Pakistan-based LeT chiefs that the Indian intelligence units was searching for him.

The ATS team in Lucknow, meanwhile, scanned the details of the 17 students in the Arabic course and 21 in Arab culture during the 2003- 2005 session. The officials have inquired a few of the students of the Aslam’s batch who belong to Lucknow.

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