Hyderabad, May 06: Police are scouring their contacts to find out what exactly Mohammed Zia-ul Haq, the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative who was arrested by the police on Monday, was up to since he crossed over into India in Kashmir way back in 2002.
Police picked up the LeTtrained operative who was allegedly tasked to attack the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu facility in Hyderabad’s software district. The plan was to set a scare in the software sector in the city.
Zia is said to have told the police during preliminary interrogation that he had wanted to shun the path of violence after he got married a few years ago. “I wanted to lead a simple life after marriage but some people were after me to carry out some action,’’ he reportedly said.
Sources said Zia’s handlers, or ‘some people’ as he called them, wanted him to hurl grenades at the Deloitte office. Zia, who was picked up by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) and handed over to the Hyderabad police, was remanded to 14 days in judicial custody today.
Zia infiltrated into India from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in the Poonch sector in Jammu & Kashmir way back in 2002. Infiltration was easier in 2002 as there was no fencing of the border until 2005. Police of that state are now trying to find out what he was up to in the state.
Sources told Express that Zia had been trained in the ways of terror at a Lashkar training camp in Muzzaffarabad in PoK. “He stayed in the Poonch sector and Jammu city for nearly three weeks before travelling to Delhi and then Hyderabad way back in 2002. Once we get his custody, we will know more about his contacts in Kashmir,’’ sources said.
The senior superintendent of police of Poonch, Manmohan Singh told Express on the telephone, “We are verifying all the old records and checking whether he has any acquaintances here.’’ Sources said that Zia also visited Bangladesh once.
Police are likely to file a petition seeking his custody shortly. The investigators are verifying Zia’s mobile phone records.
–Agencies