Two men, suspected to have links with terror group al-Qaeda have been nabbed from Haryana's Mewat district in a joint operation by Delhi Police and a central intelligence agency, Mewat Police today said.
The suspected terrorists have been identified as Mohamad Qasim and Abdul Sami, residents of Jamshedpur district in Jharkhand, the latter believed to be a key operative of the banned terror outfit, who allegedly received arms training in Pakistan.
Qasim and Sami had reached Punhana sub-town in Muslim-dominated Mewat district two days ago and were residing in a mosque situated on Punhana Hodal Road, Punhana Police said.
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"During interrogation, the sleuths found Qasim and Sami hesitant while revealing their identities and their objective of visiting Punhana, after which they were arrested", DSP Punhana Ratandeep Bali said.
A senior official of Delhi Police, however, clearly stated that "only one person has been arrested by them."
"Besides Sami, no other person has been arrested or detained by the Delhi Police," Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep, said today.
"Sami was arrested by Delhi Police's Special Cell from Nuh town in Mewat yesterday. He was brought here and produced before a court which remanded him in police custody till February 1," Deep said.
Sami was allegedly mentored by Abdul Rahman, a madrassa cleric who was arrested from Jagatpur area of Cuttack in Odisha, in December by a Special Cell team, a senior Delhi Police official said.
Rahman's arrest was the second in the ongoing operation. So far the police have identified three persons whom Rahman had inducted in al-Qaeda's module in the Indian sub-continent (AQIS) and sent for training.
While Sami has been arrested, the other two -- identified as Abu Sufian and Umar Hyderabadi -- are still believed to be in Pakistan, the official added.
He further said, Sami left for Dubai in January 2014, he stayed there for a month before moving to Karachi. From there, he went to Mansehra, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, where he received training in handling AK 47 and light machine guns.
Sami's movements were being coordinated by a handler, identified as Yusuf, from Pakistan.