Most-wanted Bilal aide arrested

Police,which found in Khajas possession 348,313 Saudi riyals,225 UAE dirhams,28,640 Pakistani rupees and 348 Bangla takas,said he was tasked by the ISI to organise terror hits in major cities of south India.

Before turning to terror,Khaja,a resident of Malakpet,was an absconding accused in two cases: attempt to murder over a dispute of installing a Ganesh idol in Malakpet and in the Task Force office blast. He was granted bail in the first case and managed to escape to Saudi Arabia in May 2005 on the pretext of performing pilgrimage at Mecca,Saudi Arabia. He then reached Karachi,Pakistan,with the help of Shahed Bilal,underwent training in LeT camps and organised a terror cell of HuJI,based in Bangladesh.

Khaja along with Shahed Bilal and others hatched a conspiracy to blow up the Commissioners Task Force office at Hyderabad to avenge the death of Mujahid Saleem who had died in police firing at DGP office on October 31,2004. Accordingly,on October 12,2005,suicide bomber Mothasim Billah alias Dalin,a Bangladesh national,was sent into India along with Kaleem,a resident of Hyderabad. Mothasim blew himself up inside the Task Force office.

Police said Khaja and Shahed Bilal were closely associated with other wanted fugitives of Indian origin and recruited several youths of Hyderabad and Bangladesh and sent them for training in Pakistan. Shahed Bilal and his elder brother Samad were killed in a shootout at Karachi on August 21,2007,following which Khaja was made incharge of the Shahed Bilal group and acted as a recruiting agent for HuJI-BD,LeT,JeM besides conducting operations as per the directions of his ISI handlers in Karachi,police said.

Two accomplices of Khaja Musthaqeen and Abdul Baqi,both Bangla nationals were arrested by the West Bengal Police in November 2009 and fake Indian currency notes with a face value of Rs 33 lakh were seized from their possession.