UP ATS nabs IM terrorist accused of Lucknow, Ahmedabad blasts

Lucknow, Sep 29 (UNI) In a major catch, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Uttar Pradesh police today arrested an Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorist Arif alias Abdul Kadir involved in Ahmedabad and Lucknow blasts.

State Director General of Police Vikram Singh said here that Arif, a resident of Sanjarpur in Saraimeer (Azamgarh) was nabbed near Charbagh railway station at Natha roundabout in the state capital at around 1215 hrs.

The ATS caught hold of the IM terrorist following the interrogation of one Saif, arrested in connection with the New Delhi serial blasts of September 13. ''Though Arif was not involved in the Delhi blasts, but he was the member of the IM module that was responsible for the blasts,'' the senior official said.

Arif has even admitted in front of the police that on the direction of Saif, he had placed explosives at the premises of Lucknow civil court on November 23 last year and was also involved in Ahmedabad blasts. He resided in a rented room in the Daliganj locality of the state capital and was taking coaching for PMT examination.

The DGP also admitted that the name of Abdul Kadir also came up after the arrest of four terrorists of HuJI in the state on December 22 and 28 last year.

The UP police said that now a linkage between HuJI and IM had been established with the arrest of Arif. Earlier, the UP ATS had arrested IM activist Abu Basar from Lucknow on August 16, who later gave some links to the Delhi police which led to the arrest of Saif and others after an encounter with terrorists at Jamia Nagar locality in Delhi.

''Arif had during the interrogation also revealed about the IM-HuJI cadre coordination and the details about the financing of the terrorist module through hawala,'' Mr Singh said.

UP ATS has contacted its couterparts of Delhi and Gujarat for further leads.

Meanwhile, the DGP announced Rs 20,000 reward for the ATS team that arrested Arif. He said that efforts were on to take Arif on police remand for further interrogation.

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