Terrorists sent to police custody

Lucknow, Feb 13 (UNI) The three Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists, nailed by the Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh Police at the Charbagh Railway Station in the state capital on Sunday, were sent to police custody till February 23 on orders of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Court here today.

The investigating officer had submitted an application before the court, seeking police custody of the three LeT terrorists Abu Osama, Abu Kasim, alias Sabauddin Ahmad, and Mohd Faruq as they had disclosed hiding of some weapons in the state.

According to the prosecution, the STF had apprehended the trio near a taxi stand at Charbagh Railway Station.

Besides Pakistani passports, the STF had recovered two AK-47 rifles, several hand grenades from their possession. Later, an FIR was lodged against them at Hussainganj police station.

As per the police, the trio were involved in the January 1 CRPF camp attack in Rampur.

Hearing the case, CJM Bal Mukund accepted the plea and directed that the terrorists be sent to police remand till February 23.

In a daring Fidayeen attack in the early hours of January 1, heavily armed Fidayeens wearing khakhi uniforms had stormed the CRPF group centre in Rampur and escaped after mowing down seven security personnel and a civilian.

In a dramatic breakthrough, the STF had nabbed six LeT terrorists involved in the January 1 CRPF centre and 2005 Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, attacks.

One scientist was killed in the 2005 IISc attack during a seminar.

While three terrorists were arrested in Lucknow, others were held in Rampur.

Except one, all the terrorists had been trained in handling weapons, explosives and intelligence gatherings in Pak-occupied Kashmir (PoK), UP DGP Vikram Singh had claimed.

Mr Singh had further claimed that their next target was either Church Gate or the Bombay Stock Exchange in the Maharashtra capital.

UNI XC/ATI SB KN2040