New Delhi:
Fasih Mohammad, an alleged terrorist accused of a key role in bomb blasts in Delhi and Bangalore, has been arrested at the Delhi airport after he was deported by Saudi Arabia.
India believes that Mohammad, who is 28, is an important member of banned terror group Indian Mujahideen, mentored by the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which executed the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, in which 166 people were killed.
"It is an important development. He was deported from Saudi Arabia. Our officers were in constant touch with Saudi Arabia officials. We've had information and evidence about him from a long time. We arrested few people in September and October and he was one of the facilitators of those people," said Home Secretary RK Singh.
Mohammad's wife has termed his arrest in New Delhi as unlawful and has vowed to challenge it in court.
"It was a clear cut case of an unlawful arrest. My husband was arrested without any solid evidence against him. All this was done on the basis of false reports of intelligence agencies," Nikhat Parveen told reporters minutes before leaving for New Delhi from Bihar's Darbhanga district. "I will approach the court for justice," she said, indicating her intention to move the Supreme Court.
Claiming that her husband was innocent, she also questioned the delay in his deportation from Saudi Arabia.
Mohammad, employed in Saudi Arabia, was allegedly picked up by Saudi authorities from Al Jubal on May 13 and was lodged in a Saudi jail from June 26 for suspected terror links, police said. His wife had appealed to the Supreme Court earlier this year for information about his whereabouts, alleging that her husband had been picked up from their home in Saudi Arabia by Indian intelligence officials. India said that at the time, it did not have the engineer from Bihar in its custody.
Mohammed allegedly helped plan a terror attack during an IPL match outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore in 2010 - 15 people, including five policemen, were injured. In September that year, just before the Commonwealth Games were held in Delhi, two gunmen shot at a tourist vehicle near the Jama Masjid mosque; two people were injured. A short while later, a car parked nearby went up in flames, allegedly because a bomb had been planted inside the Maruti 800. (
Read: We will also seek custody of Fasih, says Bangalore Police)
He hails from Barh Saaila village in Darbhanga district of Bihar, about 200 km from Patna. His father, Firoz Ahmad, is in-charge of the Benipatti primary health centre in Madhubani district. His mother is a school teacher in Darbhanga.
Sources say, two weeks ago, Saudi Arabia deported another terror suspect A Rayees to India. He is suspected to be a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative. Rayees was named as the third accused in a case relating to seizure of ammonium nitrate from Chakkarakkal in Kannaur in 2009. During the course of the investigation, he had fled to Saudi Arabia. After his deportation today, he has been handed over to the Kerala Police. (
Read: Saudi Arabia deports alleged terrorist wanted by Kerala)
Three terror suspects have been deported to India from Saudi Arabia in the past six months. The series of deportations shows growing cooperation between Saudi Arabia and India, despite protests from Pakistan.
In June, Saudi Arabia deported Abu Jundal, a man who allegedly served as a handler for the terrorists who ravaged Mumbai in India's worst-ever terror attacks in 2008. India and the US had spent a year coordinating intelligence inputs and pressuring Saudi Arabia to send Jundal to Delhi, against the wishes of Pakistan.
He has been interrogated by the police forces of different states and the National Investigating Agency (NIA), which is handling the investigation into the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in which 166 people were killed. Jundal has also been confronted with Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist caught alive during 26/11, who is in a jail in Mumbai and has been given the death sentence by the Supreme Court.
(
With inputs from IANS)