Mumbai: The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested the fourth accused Yusuf Shaikh from the Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir in a terror link case for allegedly receiving funds from Lashkar-e Taiba operative in Pak-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and depositing it in the bank account of arrested accused Mohammed Junaid.
ATS had arrested Junaid on May 24 from Pune for allegedly taking ₹10,000 from a Jammu and Kashmir-based terror organisation to procure arms and conduct terrorist activities. He is presently in ATS custody.
According to an ATS official, he travelled to J&K at least four times and was in touch with the Lashkar-e-Taiba leadership in the state as well as the POK handler. Based on Junaid’s interrogation, an ATS team had visited J&K and arrested his immediate handler Aftab Hussain Shah from Kishtwab in J&K.
Shah is a carpenter by profession and had recruited Junaid and made him speak to the POK handler during indoctrination, said a police source.
Later, on June 13, based on the input provided by Maharashtra ATS, Uttar Pradesh ATS arrested a third link, Inamul Haq, 20, from Uttar Pradesh.
Additional director general, Vineet Agrawal of the ATS confirmed the development and said, as per the investigation Yusuf Shaikh is connected to a Lashkar-e-Toiba operative in POK and he received terror funds from him.
“It was also found in the interrogation that Shaikh deposited some of the funds in the bank account of Mohammed Junaid to promote terror,” said Agrawal.
A 12-member team of ATS are in J&K for the last two weeks and has been questioning several people and looking for more suspects in the case. Junaid came in contact with the terror group through social media and was subsequently radicalised using religious videos with inflammatory messages, officials said.
The ATS official arrested Junaid from the house of his relative in the Dapodi area of Pune on May 24. He is a native of Khamgaon taluka in the Buldhana district of Maharashtra. He has been staying in Dapodi for the past four years and works in a scrap dealer’s shop.
As per the ATS official, one, Zargar had formed a WhatsApp group called ‘Ansar Gazwatul Hind/Tawheed’ which Junaid was a part of and they allegedly discussed anti-national and terror activities.
Junaid had been frequently changing his SIM cards and also created various accounts on Facebook for recruiting new members, officers added.