By IANS,
Lucknow : The Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Uttar Pradesh police is looking for 21 students of Lucknow University who studied with suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Mohammad Aslam alias Salim arrested in Delhi Tuesday.
Salim was a student of Arabic studies from 2003 to 2005 and the ATS is now trying to trace 21 students of Arabic, Persian and Urdu Departments who studied during the same period in Lucknow University, an ATS source said.
“Besides Salim, most of these students belong to Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir and had used the address of the same ‘religious society’ located near Lucknow University to get admission. Some of them also belong to Poorvanchal district of the state from where many terror suspects were arrested or killed in encounters in recent past. All of them are untraceable as of now,” the source said.
“Mohammad Aslam alias Salim was a student of M.A. Arabic Studies from 2003 to 2005. A native of Rajouri in Kashmir, his ‘operational name’ in Lucknow was Mohammad Salim,” Additional Director General of police Brijlal had earlier told reporters.
The university has started taking stringent steps in the verification process of students and has put this data online to assist security agencies.
“The data of all such students will be instantly made available to the deputy inspector general of the police and the district magistrate. We have also sent the details of 12 students to the ATS and are assisting them in their probe,” an official of the university vice chancellor’s office told IANS on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, an ATS team of the state is camping in New Delhi to interrogate Salim.
“The team is in New Delhi and the Delhi police has yet not given us time for interrogation,” Additional Director General of police A.K. Jain told reporters.
A Pakistani passport, a Jammu and Kashmir voter identity card and some explosives were recovered from Salim.
He had apparently been sent to Lucknow to take charge of the “sleeper modules” of the LeT in the eastern region of the state.
“An expert in computers, Salim is a trained militant of the LeT. He had also received rigorous training in Pakistan. His admission to Lucknow University was a well-planned strategy of the LeT,” an ATS official said.
According to Maharashtra police records, Salim’s name surfaced after the arrest of three LeT terrorists, Mohammad Zubair, Mohammad Tanvir and Mohammad Amir, in 2006 from Aurangabad district.
Nearly 30 kg of RDX explosives and 10 AK-47 rifles were recovered from them. During interrogation, they revealed Salim’s name. He was in Lucknow at that time.
“However, Salim managed to escape to Pakistan via Nepal. A few days ago, he again slipped into India through Jammu and Kashmir and was caught in New Delhi,” the ATS source added.