DEHRADUN: An Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) team has arrested a man who had threatened to carry out serial bomb blasts at various locations in Nainital from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh after 20 days of efforts.
Khalid, formerly Nitin Sharma, who threatened to carry out bomb blasts in the name of terrorist organization Hizbul Mujahideen, is being interrogated by the STF.
Uttarakhand STF's Additional Superintendent of Police Chandra Mohan Singh told TNIE, "On July 17 this year, the accused Nitin Sharma had threatened the Nainital Media Cell police through Facebook Messenger that serial bomb blasts would take place in the next 24 hours."
On October 4, 2022, the Nainital Police Control Room had received bomb threats through phone calls.
"The case was transferred to Uttarakhand STF amidst repeated bomb threats and after about three weeks of hard work, the STF arrested the accused Nitin Sharma from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh on Monday," the cop said.
No concrete evidence has been found yet to show that the accused has links with international terrorist gangs, the ASP said.
The STF however has confirmed that bomb threat cases have been registered against the accused in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala.
The arrested accused will be produced in Nainital court.
STF sources said that Nitin Sharma, a resident of Delhi, who has passed Class 10, had confessed during interrogation that he had converted to Islam, that he goes to different mosques to pray, and that there was no one behind him.
"Preliminary interrogation and investigation has revealed that the accused Nitin Sharma alias Khalid used to visit mosques in different states and collect money from there," ASP Singh told TNIE,