Another IM man arrested in Bihar

A Seventh alleged Indian Mujahideen operative was arrested from Purnia in Bihar on Monday night,police said.

A Seventh alleged Indian Mujahideen operative was arrested from Purnia in Bihar on Monday night,police said. The man,identified as Farooq alias Nawab Alam alias Aftab Alam,is alleged to have been involved in the Chinnaswamy Stadium blast in Bangalore on April 17,2010.

Purnia SP Amit Lodha said Farooq was arrested from Khaatahaat village under Jalalgarh police station in Kasba Assembly constituency,45 km from Purnia town. His arrest is part of the nationwide arrest of IM operatives in connection with the Jama Masjid,Chinnaswamy Stadium and Delhi High Court blasts.

Police and Intelligence sources said Farooq was arrested after Delhi Police’s Special Cell team,assisted by local police,raided Khaatahaat village on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday. Farooq,who has no case registered against him in Bihar,ran a small provisions store at the village.

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Sources said his name emerged during the interrogation of Mohd Qateel Siddiqui,the first IM operative to be arrested on November 22 from the Anand Vihar bus terminal in Delhi.

While Yasin Bhatkal alias Yasin Ahmad Siddibappa is reported to have masterminded the Chinnaswamy Stadium blast,Farooq along with Siddiqui,Gayur Ahmad Jamali and another person whose name the police have not yet revealed are alleged to have planned the attack and planted the bomb at the stadium.

Sources said Farooq’s transit remand has been sought from a local court in Bihar and he is scheduled to board a train to Delhi. According to these sources,Farooq had also done a recce of Delhi and visited areas such as Nangloi in West Delhi from where an ordnance factory was unearthed in Meer Vihar’s C block area,Okhla and East Delhi.

Farooq is the seventh alleged Indian Mujahideen operative to have been arrested after the Delhi Police,in coordination with central intelligence agencies and the state police,arrested Siddiqui,Mohd Adil alias Ajmal,Mohd Irshad Khan,Gauhar Aziz Khomani,Gayur Ahmad Jamali and Abdur Rahman after a ten-day pan-India operation.