By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS,
Kathmandu : Close on the heels of the Mumbai savagery, Nepal police have uncovered a terror link between Kathmandu and Pakistan’s Karachi city with the arrest of members of a fake currency gang known to be funding extremist groups in Jammu and Kashmir in India.
Aslam Ansari, a 58-year-old Pakistani from Karachi and one of the kingpins of the fake Indian currency racket spanning India, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Middle East, was arrested Friday in Birgunj town located on the India-Nepal border.
Aslam Ansari, whose network spans major Indian metros like New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata and whose aides are recruited from Bihar and the border towns in Nepal, was arrested by Delhi Police in 2003 but escaped.
During his arrest in 2003, police had said that Aslam Ansari was supplying fake currency to militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir. He was also said to have been recruiting young people from Bihar for military training in the Kashmir Valley.
Along with Aslam Ansari, Nepal police Friday also arrested his accomplices Mohammad Jehangir, a 25-year-old from Bihar’s Sitamarhi district, and Nasim Ansari, a 27-year-old Nepali from the border district Bara.
Nasim Ansari was running a travel agency in Kathmandu – DRN Travels and Tours – whose main business was to provide fake travel documents for Pakistanis in Nepal and to facilitate their trips between Karachi and Kathmandu via Pakistan’s national carrier Pakistan International Airlines, the police said.
“We were alerted about the counterfeit racket in November after a Nepali, Sajid Ansari (also from the border town of Birgunj), was arrested with fake Indian notes worth nearly Rs.800,000,” Inspector K.P. Sharma told IANS.
“Sajid’s mobile telephone records showed regular calls to the Karachi-based brain behind the network, a man called Safi Ahmad.”
A week ago, Nepal police received a tip-off that Safi Ahmad, declared “most wanted” in Nepal, was once more in Kathmandu, trying to recruit more people.
“However, we did not have much more information. On Thursday, Safi Ahmad, alerted that a hunt was on for him, fled to Karachi on a PIA flight using a fake passport.”
Police, however, arrested Nasim Ansari who led the police to the trail of the new representative left behind by Safi Ahmad, Aslam Ansari.
“An alert had been issued for Nasim Ansari’s arrest after he fled from custody. On Friday we arrested him and Jehangir from a hotel in Birgunj,” Sharma said.
Nasim Ansari was carrying “samples” of counterfeit Indian currency in notes of Rs.1,000 that are banned in Nepal.
Nepal police said they are also investigating about the fake passport that enabled Safi Ahmad to escape to Karachi, especially where and when it was issued.