Shabir Ahmed Lone - the Indian-born Bangladesh-based alleged handler of a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist module busted in Delhi last week - was in direct contact with LeT founder and chief, Hafiz Saeed, and its senior commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, sources told NDTV Monday.
Saeed and Lakhvi, high on the list of terrorists wanted by India, were designated by code names 'chacha ji', or 'uncle' while Lakhvi's handle was 'taya ji', or 'older uncle', sources said.
NDTV also learned Lone was close to a third high-ranking LeT terrorist, Abu Al Qama, who has been linked to last year's car bomb attack on Delhi's Red Fort and the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Al Qama reportedly recruited Lone into the world of terrorism in 2005.
Lone's Delhi link
Earlier today, sources said Lone visited Delhi often to meet contacts and facilitate recruitment of Bangladeshi nationals. His primary task, officials in the intelligence community said, was to recruit and radicalise individuals illegally residing in India as part of a larger conspiracy.
On Sunday evening anti-terror officials confirmed they had dismantled the module and arrested eight individuals, including seven Bangladeshi nationals. Lone, however, remains on the run.
RECAP | LeT-Linked Terror Module Busted, 8 Arrested For Plotting Attack
The arrests followed raids in two poll-bound states - Bengal and Tamil Nadu - after investigators traced the group to pro-terror posters at multiple locations in Delhi.
Lone's last-visited Delhi location was Shaheen Bagh, the centre of fierce protests from December 2019 to March 2020 against the government's Citizenship Amendment Act.
Lone's arrest and return
He has been arrested by Indian police once before; in 2007 Delhi Police's Special Cell took him into custody over the recovery of arms and ammunition, including an AK-47 and grenades.
Incarcerated in the national capital's Tihar Jail, Lone was released in 2018, after which he fled to Bangladesh. Since his return the following year, he has been working to revive the LeT's India terror network, principally by activating sleeper cells of terrorists who crossed over illegally.
RECAP | Delhi Visits, Terrorist Recruitment: Lashkar Terrorist's India Plan
Police sources told NDTV Lone is being backed and funded by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence to both recruit Bangladeshi nationals living illegally in India and plan terror plots.
Lone's poster propaganda
The pro-Pak, pro-terror posters Lone's module pasted across Delhi - and which triggered this whole investigation - were printed in Kolkata, but he e-mailed the PDF from Bangladesh.
The two individuals who allegedly pasted these posters - Umar Faruk (31), a resident of Bengal's Malda, and Robiul Islam (31), a native of Bangladesh - have been arrested.
Sources indicate the accused were allegedly using forged Aadhaar cards for identification.
Sources said Faruk was in close touch with Lone and had been tasked with summoning six terrorist members - those arrested in Tamil Nadu - to Kolkata ahead of an attack.
Lone reportedly also funded the renting of a house - at Rs 8,000 per month - on the outskirts of Kolkata to set up a second base for his module. He then sent an additional Rs 80,000.
RECAP | 16 SIMs, 8 Phones, 1 Plot: How Pak-Backed Module Was Busted
More funds were to be routed, sources said, to buy weapons. All contact between Lone and members of his module were via Signal, an encrypted messaging service similar to WhatsApp.
Pak terror modules in Bangladesh
Intelligence briefings studied by NDTV suggest a complete unit of Pak's ISI is already operating in Bangladesh, underlining concerns expressed earlier about radical elements in the latter country providing Islamabad an easy option to expand on its anti-India terror agenda.
The ISI and Pak-backed terror group's entry into Bangladesh has been made easier because of local terrorist groups, sources said, including the Jama'at Mujahideen Bangladesh, which has also been recognised as a terrorist organisation by the Australian government.
The JMB, which Australian national security briefings have linked to the August 2005 attack that targeted, simultaneously, 63 of the country's 64 districts, has also been linked to the Lashkar.
Offshoots of the Jamaat group, sources indicated, have also been linked to ISIS.
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