Two more with LeT links held in Darbhanga parcel blast case

PATNA: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested one Haji Salim and his son Kafil from Kairana in Uttar Pradesh after getting seven-day custody of Mohammad Nasir Khan and his brother Imran Khan with alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) links in Darbhanga railway station parcel blast case.
The two brothers were arrested in Hyderabad on June 30 and were brought to Patna on transit remand on Friday morning.All the four belong to Kairana in Shamli, UP.
Sources said Salim, an alleged recruiter for LeT in India, had also recruited Nasir and had faciltated his visit to Pakistan in 2012 for getting trained in IED manufacturing.
Both Salim and Kafil were being brought to Patna and would be produced in the NIA court on Saturday in the Darbhanga parcel blast case.
The parcel containing a chemical kept in a glass bottle wrapped with adhesive tapes in women’s clothes was booked at Secunderabad railway station. The parcel had exploded while being dumped at platform number one of Darbhanga railway station on June 17.
"It has also come to light that Salim himself had visited Pakistan 12 times and recruited youths in India for the LeT. He had also financed more than Rs 1.5 lakh to Nasir and Imran for manufacturing the explosive and parcel it to Darbhanga from Secunderabad," an NIA source said.
Earlier, Nasir and Imran were brought to Patna by air amid tight security on transit remand and produced before the special court (NIA Act) of ADJ-XV Gurvinder Singh Malhotra, which allowed their custodial remand for interrogation.
The court also accepted the NIA’s plea to invoke Section 16 (punishment for terrorist act) and Section 18 (punishment for conspiracy to attempt, advocate, abet, advice, incite, knowingly facilitating commission of a terrorist act) of The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019 in the case.
As per the NIA, Nasir visited Pakistan in 2012 and was trained by LeT in making improvised explosive devices (IED) from easily available chemicals in the market. The NIA has also stated that both were acting on the direction of their Pakistan-based handlers. The duo belongs to Kairana in Shamli, Uttar Pradesh, but had settled in Hyderabad two decades ago.
Sources said both were interrogated by a joint team of ATS and four members of the Intelligence Bureau after landing at Patna airport and before producing them in the NIA court. Sources said the NIA will soon arrest some more people in the case.
They were sent to Beur central jail to spend a night as the NIA would take the duo on remand from Saturday and take them to several places during interrogation. Sources said the NIA had actually prayed for their ten days’ custodial remand, but the court allowed only seven days.
State police headquarters sources said a special interrogation cell has been prepared inside the high-security Bihar Special Armed Police (erstwhile Bihar Military Police) premises for interrogating Nasir and Imran.