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A joint police team of Intelligence Bureau (IB) and special cell of the Delhi police picked up international terrorist Osama bin Laden’s Patna connection, Mohammad Arshad alias Ladoo Milan, from his residence in Naya Tola under Phulwarisharif police station on Thursday morning.
Soon after his arrest, Arshad was taken to Delhi for interrogation. Disclosures by Laden's confidants, including Sudanese national Hawash and his Bihar associate Pirbaba, that Arshad, too, was part of their “grandiose plan” to blow up U.S. embassy led to the arrest of Arshad, sources said.
According to them, Arshad, son of one Mohammad Sah, in order to camouflage his “real operations”, used to drive autorickshaw carrying passengers from Phulwari to Patna and vice versa. The arrest of Arshad was kept a closely guarded secret so much so that the local police was not even informed why their “catch” (Arshad) was being taken to Delhi.
The Chanakyapuri police of Delhi has instituted a case against Hawash, his Indian accomplices, who include Shamim Sarwar, and Pirbaba for planning to orchestrate attacks on the U.S. embassies in Delhi and Dhaka sometime in August. Sources further said that as soon as the “sinister design” of Laden was unravelled by the Delhi police following the arrest of Hawash and Shamim Sarwar, the police were on the, look out for Arshad following their disclosure that he, too, was part of the “greater conspiracy”. The police hope that interrogation of Arashad would provide them more clues and leads on their plan to blow up the embassies.
The special cell of the Delhi police are also on the look out for a Yemenese national Al Safani. Hawash had reportedly confessed to the police that he had come in contact with Safani sometime in February this year and also mentioned that Safani was instrumental in triggering the blast in U.S. embassy in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7, 1998, which had left over 200 people dead. Apart from this, Safani was also reportedly involved in blowing up of a U.S. Navy ship while it was anchored along the shore of Aden in Yemen.
The arrests of Pirbaba and Arshad have confirmed that Laden has established his contacts in Bihar as well. Strategically, Bihar suits Laden for carrying out his operations because of the fact that it borders Nepal and is close to Bangladesh. Sources further said that Laden has established a network of 200 people in India and Bangladesh and over two dozen persons are considered to Constitute the core group of dedicated people and sympathisers in the two countries.
Whether Arshad was part of the core
group would be established once the Delhi police and IB inter-rogate him
jointly in Delhi, sources added.
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