Delhi police in soup over nabbed `Hizbul terrorist`

Sayyed Liyaqat Shah was arrested for allegedly planning a terror strike in Delhi.

Srinagar: The family of Sayyed Liyaqat Shah, arrested for allegedly planning a terror strike in Delhi, on Friday claimed he was returning home via Nepal under the Jammu and Kashmir government`s rehabilitation policy for surrendered militants.

Shah`s wife Ameena Begum told a news agency that her husband was returning home under the government`s rehabilitation policy via Nepal and there was no question of him carrying any weapons. "My husband was picked up by some gunmen six years after our marriage around 15 years ago. After some years, we received a letter from him saying he was in Pakistan and was working as a labourer in Mansehra," she said. "After mobile phones started working in the Valley, we used to occasionally receive calls from him confirming his welfare and his desire to return home," Ameena said. "We filed an application with the authorities in Kupwara district requesting that Liyaqat be allowed to return home under the rehabilitation policy." "Authorities accepted our request and said he must return to India via Nepal and thereafter he would be helped to re-join his family. Now we are hearing that police have arrested him in Delhi with some weapons," Ameena said. "There is no question of my husband returning to India with any weapon at all since he was coming home under the state government`s rehabilitation policy and that too through Nepal." Ameena Begum lives in Jindiyala village in north Kashmir`s Kupwara district, 105 km from here. Her elder son Shabir is 21 and younger son Saddam is 15. Shah, 47, was arrested by the Delhi Police from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh on March 20. Police on Friday claimed to have averted a `fidayeen` (suicide) terror attack in the capital with his arrest. They said Shah was a suspected Hizbul Mujahideen militant. A court has sent him in 15 days` police remand. IANS