Sleeper cells very active in city: Police

Hyderabad (Agency) :  Activity of arranging shelter to the illegal immigrants, arranging Indian identification and helping them cross the border is just a cover With the arrest of top operatives of Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-Islami here and their role in helping the Indian Mujahedeen operatives to flee India, the city police strongly feel that ‘Sleeper Cells’ in Hyderabad are active. On recovering hundreds of telephone numbers from the mobiles of arrested HuJI operatives, the suspicion of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) about the sleeper cell functioning in Hyderabad has further strengthened.The sleuths of SIT have been meticulously working on the contact numbers recovered from mobile phones of the arrested accused persons and were gearing up to nab more such terror operatives in the city. Mohammed Nasir, 52, of Bangladesh was arrested along with Masood Ali Khan of Chanchalguda and Sohail Parvez Khan of Balapur, by the Hyderabad city police on August 14, on charges of arranging Indian passports to the illegal immigrants of neighbouring countries. The police also arrested Faizal Mohamoud, 24, and Joynal Abedin,30, of Bangladesh and Zia-ur-Rehman,18, of Myanmar for entering India illegally and procuring Indian passports. Thorough investigation in the case revealed the role of Nasir in extending help to Waqas Ahmed alias Zia-ur-Rehman, who had planted a bomb at Dilsukhnagar in 2013. Nasir had helped Waqas to cross India from West Bengal and reach Bangladesh, immediately after the twin blasts.Based on the confession of Nasir, the SIT had been to Delhi and nabbed Noor-Ul-Haq alias Shaik Noor, 62, the recruiter for HuJI in India and his aide Hashim alias Shaik Ameer alias Anwar, 40, from Lingampally in Hyderabad on August 24. During interrogation, the accused persons revealed that Nasir, who entered India in 2010 was



recruited by Shaik Noor, a native of Zaheerabad and has been working on the orders of Noor.
Both the arrested were some of the most active members of HuJI, the terror organisation that had a role in the Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat bomb blasts in Hyderabad in 2007. The investigation also revealed shocking information to the sleuths that the duo had adequate contacts in Hyderabad to indulge in untoward incidents.  “Hundreds of contact numbers have been recovered from the mobile phones of Nasir and Noor. They have a very good network in Hyderabad and the Bangladesh national Hashim has been working as supervisor in checking the progress of works assigned to Nasir at Hyderabad and inform them to Noor in Delhi,” said a senior police officer of SIT. Nasir, a self-funding operative, was establishing himself in Hyderabad in order to execute further plans, while Noor has been assigning tasks to Nasir to verify his capability in finishing the tasks, the police said. “Helping Waqas Ahmed of Indian Mujahedeen was a task given to Nasir. Having experience in crossing the border illegally had helped Nasir to perform the task easily after the blasts. It establishes the relation between HuJI and IM from longer times,” the officer said.The officer said that accused Sohail Parvez Khan, also had close relationship with Noor and Hashim. Sohail, a private teacher from Balapur, was the first person to receive Nasir in Hyderabad on directions of Noor.“They are sleeper cells. Their activity of arranging shelter to the illegal immigrants, arranging Indian identification and helping them cross the border is just a cover. The motto of the group in performing such activities is something that has to be extracted during interrogation,” the SIT officer said with reference to the illegal activities indulged by the arrested accused persons.