New Delhi: Indian intelligence marked another success story as they managed to bring home alleged IM terrorist Abdul Sattar from the UAE.
Sattar, who has escaped from India in 2007 with the help of the Pakistani intelligence services, ISI, travelled to the UAE via Karachi. According to Indian intelligence sources, Sattar was being tracked for several year and a recent check on visa violations led them to him in the middle eastern country.
According to sources he had settled down in the UAE and started working there. He set up several IM cells there with plans to conduct terrorist attacks in India.
His name first surfaced as an IM operative when he attended a terrorist training camp in Vagamon in Kerala`s Kottayam district. While he was not involved in any known terrorist attacks in India, those who trained with him orchestrated the serial bomb attacks in Gujarat.
He was in touch with other alleged terrorists using skype and other communication methods that are difficult to track. He was also believed to have helped transfer hawala funds to other IM members since 2007.
"We are in the process of interrogating him and we are keen to find out about the other terrorist cells he has helped set up in the UAE," a senior intelligence official told DNA. He is likely to be produced in a local court in Kerala and the case will be handed over to the NIA.
His elder brother is also a suspected IM member and is currently on the run. Sattar was declared a proclaimed offender by a local court a few years ago.
A few months ago India`s external agency RAW was alerted about his presence in the UAE through its liaison branch. They immediately started working with their counterparts there after he was caught violating his visa conditions.
Last year RAW managed to get Abu Jundal, also known as Zabiuddin Ansari, another IM member originally hailing from Maharashtra, who was residing in Saudi Arabia. It is understood that American intelligence officials also helped in getting custody of these suspected terrorists.
DNA/Saikat Datta
