Author:
Publication: Mumbai Mirror
Date: December 20, 2006
Introduction: The three belonged to Manipur;
police say this is the first time that people from North-East have been found
to have links with the Pak-based terror outfit
Three Manipuri youths suspected to be members
of Lashker-e-Taiba were arrested on Tuesday near the busy Red Fort area here
-- the first instance of the Pakistan-based terror group recruiting cadres
from a north-eastern state.
Salman Khurshid Kori (23), Abdur Rehman (24)
and Mohammad Akbar Hussain (20), who was allegedly planning blasts in busy
markets of the capital, were arrested by special cell sleuths of the Delhi
Police as soon as they alighted from a bus coming from Jammu opposite the
Red Fort area around 7:30 am.
"All the youths hail from Manipur,"
Joint Commissioner (special cell) Karnal Singh said, adding that this was
the first instance of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) infiltrating in organisations
of the north-eastern state.
"This is for the first time that nexus
of LeT with groups in the north-east has come to light, thereby implying that
LeT is trying to create a base for itself in the north-east," Singh said.
He said two kg RDX, two detonators and one
hand grenade was seized from their possession.
The trio has links with two LeT terrorists,
hailing from Bangladesh, who were arrested in the capital on October 16, days
ahead of Diwali.
Singh said the two Bangladeshi terrorists
had come to deliver RDX to the trio from Manipur in October but were intercepted
by the special cell sleuths.
"We had been on their trail since October,"
he said.