New Delhi, June 05: Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday confirmed that Omar Madni, the LeT commander nabbed from Delhi, is indeed a close associate of 26/11 mastermind JuD chief Hafiz Saeed.
“Man who has been arrested does has links with Hafiz Saeed,” said Chidambaram, adding – with regards to reports that a terror attack in imminent in the South – that there’s no need for alarm.
Advising against connecting the arrest of Madni with the terror alert, the Home Minister said, “Don’t connect the two; there’s no need for alarm, no terror attack is imminent. The information passed on to the state polices was routine.”
“What the Hyderabad Police Commissioner did (announcing high-alert in the city) was his decision,” added Chidambaram.
Madni: LeT’s important operative across the Indo-Nepal region
Madni, was arrested by the Delhi Police Anti-Terror Cell on Thursday from near the Qutab Minar in south Delhi. He is thought to be Pakistani national, who settled in Nepal to look after the LeT operations there.
Though no arms and ammunition were recovered from Mohammed Omar Madni, he was found to be in possession of a diary, a Nepali driving licence, an identity card, fake Nepalese currency of Rs 8,000 and 8,000 dollars. .
As per reports, Madni was tailed by intelligence sleuths from Nepal itself, he traveled through Bihar and UP meeting LeT sympathizers, before landing in Delhi.
“He is a close aide of Hafiz Saeed and has been operating from Nepal from the past one year,” a senior Delhi police offical said.
Madni is now surely believed to be in the inner circle of Saeed since 2000 and was involved in “talent scouting” for the Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit, he said. The UN Security Council had banned JUD, declaring it a front for LeT. Saeed, a prime accused in the Mumbai attacks case, was set free on Wednesday by the Lahore High Court after a six-month detention.
Madni sent many youth to terror training camps in PoK besides using the porous Indo-Nepal border to send his people, the police official added.
South India on high alert, 38 detained in AP
Acting on the Intelligence Bureau inputs that terrorists are planning a major strike in south India; all the southern states have been put on a high security alert.
Andhra Pradesh capital Hyderabad, with its history of being a terror target, is on high alert following inputs from Intelligence Bureau (IB) that three terrorists, in the age group of 30 years, have entered the country and are planning to strike important cities of south India.
Security has been beefed up at major hospitals and crowded places including railway and bus stations in the city.
The police have already taken up checking and frisking operations in different localities in the city.
Urging people to inform the police if they found any suspicious stranger not able to speak native language, the Commissioner issued instructions to the policemen to be vigilant.
Police has also requested owners of the lodges and hotels to keep a watch on the movement of their customers and ascertain their identity.
Following a terror alert, 25 persons travelling by Dakshin Express were taken into custody at Jangaon station here after country-made weapons were allegedly recovered from their possession today, even as 13 other suspects were detained from another train, police said.
The 25 persons who were detained were coming from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and were in possession of four country-made weapons.
About 13 other suspects were also detained while searching the Hyderabad-New Delhi-Andhra Pradesh Express train at Kazipet Railway station in Warangal district.
“They have been detained for questioning in the backdrop of terror alert in the state capital,” a senior police officer said.
Even the police in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are also not taking any chances with the TN police having put in place a preventive mechanism to deal with any eventuality.
“We have not received any specific alert (about any terror strike). There is a general alert and we have put in proper prevention mechanism in place,” State ADGP (Law and Order) K Radhakrishnan said.
Karnataka Home Minister VS Acharya has also confirmed that there is a terror threat and the state is maintaining high level of alertness.
–Agencies