MUMBAI: Pakistan trained terrorist arrested in Mumbai last week was planning major attacks in Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, officials from the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) said here on Monday.
“The Pakistani handlers had made several improvisations while taking the terrorist from Mumbai to Sharjah and from there to Pakistan this time. He was trained for two weeks in handling various weapons, making bombs and planning attacks etc,” ATS chief Atulchandra Kulkarni told reporters here on Monday.
The 32-year-youth residing at the western Mumbai suburb of Jogeshwari, Faisal Hasan Mirza, was allegedly in touch with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) members. The ATS officials kept watch on him after a tip off from the Kolkata special task force officials and arrested him on May 11.
“His handler in Sharjah was his distant relative and had called him there under pretext of a job. Even while sending him over to Pakistan, they chose destination for which the flights had a stopover in Pakistan during transit. During the stopover he was off boarded the plane,” ATS officials said.
After the training he was sent back to India around two months back and had been waiting for further instruction since then. He was planning to kill several leading Indian politicians and film personalities, and conduct a series of bomb explosions in several cities, the ATS officials said.
Mirza was produced in court and remanded in police custody until May 21. His interrogation may reveal information that could lead to more arrests, the ATS officials said.