2 al-Qaeda terror suspects held

Wanted Al-Qaeda terrorist Syed Mohammad Zishan Ali has been arrested at the IGI airport on Thursday.

Image representational: file photo

New Delhi: Ahead of Independence Day, two men with suspected links to al-Qaeda were arrested here in two separate cases, police said today. In the first case, the Delhi Police's Special Cell arrested 29-year-old Syed Mohammed Zishan Ali, suspected to be linked to the terror outfit. He was arrested here yesterday after being deported from Saudi Arabia. The police were on the lookout for the suspect ever since three alleged AQIS (al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent) operatives were arrested in 2015. Ali was involved in assembling "disgruntled and radicalised" youths and training them at camps the AQIS was planning to set up here, police said. The Special Cell got on Ali's trail following the arrest of suspected AQIS members in December 2015, who had revealed that Ali was a key member. He was even declared a proclaimed offender, they added. One of the arrested AQIS men, Abdur Rehman, had told police that Ali was operating for the terror outfit from Saudi Arab along with his brother Syed Mohammad Arshiyan alias Haider and brother-in-law Sabeel Ahmed, police said. Ali is married to the sister of Sabeel Ahmed, who was arrested in connection with the 2007 Glasgow airport attack and later released. Yesterday, the police were informed about 30 Indians, including Ali, being deported from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia due to a visa violation. Ali was nabbed from the Indira Gandhi International Airport yesterday, said a senior police officer. Ali, who belongs to Jamshedpur, was part of the network which was planning to create a terror base in the country, he said. "There were plans to start training camps in the jungles of Jharkhand but their plan was foiled," said the officer. In Saudi Arabia, Ali would pose as cell phone dealer or an employee of a private firm while carrying out his recruitment activities, police said, adding his links with Pakistan-based terror outfits were also being probed. Raja-ul-Ahmed (25), with links to al-Qaeda, was the other man arrested by the Delhi Police on August 1 following a tip- off from the West Bengal Police. A senior officer from the Delhi Police said Ahmed is wanted in a case of Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN) by the West Bengal Police, who alerted their counterparts here about his place of hiding. Ahmed is a suspected member of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), an al-Qaeda-inspired group in Bangladesh.