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News of Jan
6, 2007
Suspected Militant
Went to Pakistan for Training
Bangalore, Jan 6
A suspected militant, arrested by the Bangalore police Friday, had
received arms training in Pakistan and had been asked to monitor IT
firms' offices here, a top police official said Saturday.
"Our interrogation of the accused has revealed that he is known as
Bilal Ahmed Kota alias Imran Jalal alias Salim (34) and was a
resident of Sadarbal, Hazratbal in Srinagar," Bangalore Police
Commissioner N. Achuta Rao told reporters.
"His father Shamsuddin is a clerk in a private transport firm and
his brother Hilal Ahmed (29) a driver in the food and civil supplies
corporation, government of Jammu & Kashmir," he said.
According to a preliminary probe by a special investigation team,
the accused went to Pakistan in 2005 and met top insurgents with
alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) links.
It was then that he was given a satellite phone and asked to wait
for instructions, police said.
"Bilal was asked to visit the offices of Wipro and Infosys as well
as the Bangalore airport to find out security arrangements at these
places and to report back. The mode of communication between Bilal
and his superiors was through the sat phone and e-mail," Rao said.
In November 2006, Bilal was instructed by his Pakistan-based masters
to go to Pune and collect a consignment of arms and ammunition.
Though he went to Pune on three-four occasions, it was only during
his last trip that he received the weapons from an operative called
"Rajesh". He returned to Hospet, about 350 km from here, with the
consignment.
After sustained interrogation that concluded Saturday morning, Bilal
was taken to Hampi by a police team to inspect the rented house he
was staying in. A raid on his shop and house led to the seizure of
one AK-56, 200 rounds of ammunition, five hand grenades, two
magazines of AK-56 and a satellite phone charger.
"A month after returning from Pune with arms and ammunition, Bilal
was instructed to take the consignment to Bangalore and await
further orders. On his arrival here, he was intercepted by the city
crime branch sleuths and taken into custody," Rao said.
Bilal was not knew to Karnataka, as he had come to Bangalore in 1991
and got admitted to a diploma course in computer science at Acharya
Polytechnic in Peenya. After completing the course in 1994, he went
back to Kashmir and worked as a supervisor in a cigarette
distributor's office.
"As per his statement, Bilal joined the JKLF (Jammu & Kashmir
Liberation Front) in 1990 and went for arms training to
Muzzaffarabad in Pakistani Kashmir.
In 2002, he came to Hampi, a world tourist heritage site near Hospet
in north Karnataka, on the invitation of his cousin Fiaz Ahmed Bhat
who owned a costume jewellery shop there. Since then, he has
made frequent visits to Bangalore and Srinagar, Rao said.
Bilal has been remanded to police custody for two weeks for further
investigations.
"With the timely arrest of Bilal, we have averted a possible terror
strike in the city. We are in touch with our counterparts in
Maharashtra, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir to gather more information
on the terror network," Rao said.
IANS
News of Jan
6, 2007
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