STATE TIMES NEWS
Mumbai: The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra police on Thursday arrested a man at Kishtwar in Jammu for his alleged links with Junaid Mohammed, accused of recruiting terrorists for the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), an official said.
The ATS had arrested 28-year-old Junaid Mohammed on May 24 from Pune’s Dapodi area, following which he was remanded into the agency’s custody till June 3. He was allegedly in touch with the active members of Pakistan-based LeT’s terror network through social media platforms, officials have said.
“A team of the Maharashtra ATS has been in Jammu and Kashmir since the last few days for investigation about the links of a 28 year old Junaid Mohammed. While investigating the links in the case, the ATS team received information about a man, who was in touch with Junaid via social media and other platforms,” he said.
“Accordingly, the state ATS team went to Kishtwar and nabbed the accused,” he said, adding that he is being brought to Mumbai.
Junaid Mohammed was assigned the task of recruiting new members for the LeT from various states, the official said, adding as part of his mandate he tried to take fresh recruits to Jammu and Kashmir to train them to carry out terror activities in the country. He would receive money from his handlers for completing the given task. During his interrogation, it came to light that the terror suspect had received Rs 10,000 from a Jammu and Kashmir-based bank account. Based on the specific information, the Kalachowky unit of the ATS had launched a probe against four suspects, including Junaid, in connection with recruiting new members for LeT and sending them to Jammu and Kashmir for training and terror activities, he said.
The ATS had registered an FIR under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 121A (conspiracy to commit offences), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 116 (abetment of an offence) and section 66 of the Information Technology Act was registered and Junaid was apprehended by the team led by police inspector Manjusha Bhosle, he said.
