New Delhi: The Delhi Police’s Special Cell, in coordination with central agencies, arrested a senior Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative near the Delhi border.
He has been accused of planning attacks in India while based in Bangladesh.
LeT commander, Shabbir Ahmad Lone, also known as Raja or Kashmiri, is a resident of Kangan in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar. He was under surveillance for his alleged involvement in orchestrating terror operations targeting India, it was reported by IANS.
He allegedly operated a terror module from a hideout near Dhaka and had been under the scanner of Indian security agencies for his involvement in recruiting youths for terrorist activities across multiple cities, including Delhi, Kolkata and parts of Tamil Nadu.
The arrest follows a two-month-long operation described by officials as a cat-and-mouse chase, closely monitored by Police Commissioner Satish Golcha, a TOI report says.
A special team led by Additional CP Pramod Kushwaha, ACP Lalit Negi, and Inspector Sunil Rajain tracked Lone’s movements before finally apprehending him.
Lone had been arrested earlier by the Delhi Police in 2007 on terror-related charges. After securing bail in 2019, he allegedly fled to Bangladesh, where he is believed to have re-established links and set up a LeT module, posing a renewed threat to Indian security.
His activities had been flagged by security agencies as being of growing concern, particularly after inputs suggested he was actively involved in radicalisation and recruitment efforts targeting Indian youths.
Lone’s arrest is part of a broader crackdown on terror operatives with links to India, officials said. Agencies are now intensifying efforts to trace Sheikh Sajjad Gul, another key figure with past connections to Delhi.
According to officials, Gul has been arrested in 2002 from Nizamuddin railway station and convicted in 2003. He was released from Tihar Jail in 2017 and fled to Pakistan soon after. He is currently believed to be leading The Resistance Front (TRF), considered a proxy outfit of Lashkar-e-Taiba. TRF has been linked to several recent terror attacks, including the Pahalgam incident, making Gul a high-priority target for Indian agencies.
Authorities said that Lone is currently being interrogated to uncover further details about his network, funding channels and potential sleeper cells, as agencies continue efforts to dismantle cross-border terror operations targeting India.
