KOLKATA: Eighteen years after the attack on the American Center in Kolkata, Amir Reza Khan, the mastermind behind the attack and founder-member of terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen, is still at large and sleuths of National Investigation Agency have come to know that he has changed his facial features.
Amir, who was also the mastermind behind Khadim shoe baron Parthapratim Roy Burman’s abduction, was last spotted in Pakistan’s Balakot in 2018 at a Laskar-e-Toiba camp.
The NIA has accessed Amir’s latest photograph revealing the changes in his facial features.
“His recent photograph hardly has similarities with his original look. He shaved his beard and moustache and has adopted a semi-bald look. He was being tracked till end 2018. He used to call at his Park Circus home once a year and it had helped us to know his location. We last traced him on October 2018, at Balakot, Pakistan,” said an NIA officer.
Amir led the attack on American Center on January 22 in 2002 in which five policemen were killed. Investigations revealed the attack was an act of revenge by Amir after his brother Asif, who was arrested for abducting a diamond businessman in Rajkot, was gunned down by police while trying to flee from police custody.
“Amir formed Asif Reza Khan Commando Force to execute the plan of the attack on the establishment. After the attack on American Center, Amir disappeared. We came to know of his presence in Pakistan in 2010 when he called the owner of a five-star hotel in Kolkata and demanded a sum as extortion money,’’ said an official.