Top Indian Mujahideen terrorist Zia-Ur Rehman, alias Waqas, who has been arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police from Rajasthan, was a key aide of arrested IM co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and an expert in making IEDs.
"The 25-year-old Rehman had undergone a 21-day training known as 'daura-amma' at the Naushera camp of Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan.
"(He also) attended advanced training at a camp in Waziristan-Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA)," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), Sanjeev Kumar Yadav. Rehman had come to India in 2010 from Pakistan via Nepal.
According to police, Rehman was born in 1989 at Mustafabad in the Toba Tek Singh district of Punjab in present-day Pakistan. His father, Jalaluddin, is a farmer. His grandfather had migrated to Pakistan from Phagwara in Indian Punjab at the time of Partition.
At a young age itself, he used to hear a lot of propaganda against India which is reportedly spread by terrorist tanzeems in Pakistan as they scout for local recruits, police said.
After completing schooling, Rehman took admission at the Government College of Technology, Faislabad, in 2006 in a Diploma in Food Technology course. It was there that some peers introduced him to the taped lectures of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) founder Maulana Masood Azhar, which inspired him to choose extremism.
In 2009, Rehman came in contact with one Taj Mohammed, who used to collect donations on behalf of Jamaat-Ud-Dawa, the front organisation for LeT. It was Taj Mohammed who arranged for Rehman's training at the Naushera camp.
Subsequently, one Abdur Rehman of JeM arranged for his training at a camp situated in Waziristan where he received intensive training in arms and ammunition.
He was also trained in the preparation of IEDs, especially in the craft of making IEDs based on Hydrogen Peroxide (liquid form), Potassium Chloride and Ammonium Nitrate.
After his training, Rehman was asked by his JeM contact to go to Karachi to meet Riyaz Bhatkal, the absconding chief of IM. Rehman met Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal in Karachi and was asked by them to proceed to Kathmandu in Nepal with directions to join other members of IM as they planned terrorist strikes in India.
