Gujarat cops say LeT recruiting cell busted

The DCB, which arrested and interrogated two alleged LeT members Iliyas Memon and Khalid Kashmiri in Ahmedabad yesterday, made two more arrests today: Kari Mufidul and Sirajuddin Ansari were picked up from Surat and Ahmedabad respectively.

The police claimed the module was involved in recruiting, indoctrinating and preparing youths for Terror training, allegedly in Bangladesh camps. While Mufidul was a teacher in Surat district’s Tadkeshwar madrasa, Ansari lived in Marwadi-ni-Chali in Ahmedabad’s Rakhial area.

Police described Khalid Kashmiri as “a prize catch” because he is the younger brother of Aslam alias Imran Kashmiri, wanted by Maharashtra police for setting up a LeT module in Aurangabad. Police claimed the module had recruited a few youths from Gujarat for training, but refused to identify them.

Kari Mufidul, who worked under Aslam for eight years, was the one who allegedly supplied CDs of provocative lectures, riots and literature to him and Bashir Kashmiri. A computer CPU and CDs, one featuring Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar, have been seized from Mufidul’s residence and are being scanned.

According to DCB, Ansari arranged fake passports for at least 20 youths from various parts of the country to train in Bangladesh by slipping through Tripura and Manipur. To extend his stay at Kantharia madrasa as a student, Ansari had opted for a longer course, they claimed. Police suspect that the passports also acted as identification documents.

DCB Deputy Commissioner of Police Manoj Sashidhar said: “The module has a link to Harkat-ul-Jehadi Ismali (HUJI) too. The youths sent by the module used to get training in terrorist camps in Bangladesh. There is a lot of information coming in from the interrogation of those arrested and we are looking at all aspects.”