LeT terrorist arrested from Mumbai airport

The accused has been identified as Salim Khan who hails from Uttar Pradesh's Fatehpur district.

Mumbai: A suspected LeT terrorist was arrested on Monday from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport here, a media report said.

The accused has been identified as Salim Khan who originally hails from Uttar Pradesh's Fatehpur district.

He was deported from the UAE after his visa expired and subsequently a look out notice was issued, a police official said 

Khan alias Abu Amaar alias Arif, a native of Hathgaon in Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh, was facing a lookout notice. He was arrested from the international airport on the intervening night of July 16 and 17, he said.

Salim was deported from Abu Dhabi by the United Arab Emirates authorities as he did not possess valid documents to support his stay in the Gulf country, said the police official in Mumbai on condition of anonymity.

He was working in a private company in Abu Dhabi for the last several years under a fake identity, he added.

According to the official, Salim, who left India in 2007, had played an important role in facilitating the "suicide" attack on a CRPF camp in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, on January 1, 2008.

Eight people, including some CRPF jawans, had been killed in the terror strike.

Indian law enforcement agencies, who were looking for him, had got information about his whereabouts and alerted the Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh Police, he said.

Personnel from Anti-Terrorism Squads of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh were at the airport when Salim landed, the official said.

In Lucknow, Inspector General of UP ATS Aseem Arun said after the arrest of suspected ISI agent Aftab from Faizabad on May 3, 2017, the ATS had come to know that Salim used to pass on directions to him and also send him money from abroad.

Arun said two people, Kausar and Shareef, arrested in connection with the attack on CRPF camp, had told the UP police that Salim had got training with them at a terror camp in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 2007.

While being abroad, Salim had been in contact with Aftab and gave instructions to him about terror activities and funding, the official in Mumbai said.

Aftab had been in constant touch with the Pakistan High Commission and had gathered information about several defence establishments in UP, the official said.

UP ATS and Maharashtra police are interrogating Salim Khan in Mumbai, Arun added.

In Mumbai, the police said the UP ATS will seek Salim's custody for questioning in the Rampur attack and alleged involvement in several other anti-national activities under their jurisdiction.