A Hyderabad link to the arrest of 11 terror suspects in Karnataka on Thursday emerged with a special team from the neighbouring state picking up a terror suspect from the city on Friday.
The suspect was identified as Obaid Ur Rehman, a graduate residing at Gulshan Iqbal Colony in Chandrayangutta area of Old City.
He is said to be a close relative of a moulana in Saidabad, whose sons and relatives have previously been arrested in various terror-related cases.
Obaid was picked up from Kanchanbagh on Friday evening by a special team from the Central Crime Branch of Bangalore police.
He was picked up based on the confession of suspects picked up in Karnataka on Wednesday.
“There were certain phone conversations between Obaid and some of the accused arrested in Karnataka yesterday (Thursday). SMSes were also exchanged. It is in some way related to the hate SMSes that were circulated after the Assam violence,” a police official said.
Besides Obaid, the visiting team is also reported to have picked up at least four more youngsters, two of whom have been identified as Mohammed Akram, a resident of Hussain Nagar, and Khairullah of Teegalkunta.
Obaid allegedly had links with the Harkat-Ul-Jihad- Al-Islami (HuJI), police sources said.
“He is part of the module busted in Karnataka who were plotting to kill MPs, MLAs and journalists with rightist leanings,” another police official disclosed.He said besides Obaid, the other suspects are reportedly members of the outfit Popular Front of India (PFI), a confederation of Muslim organisations in the country, which claims to support minority and underprivileged groups by holding demonstrations and marches.
Some of them had allegedly pasted certain objectionable posters across Old City sometime ago, which spoke about “innocent Muslim youths languishing in jails”, sources said.
The suspects are also reportedly linked to the spreading of communally-charged SMSes and posting messages on the internet after the unprecedented violence in Assam, with a view to fan communal tension, they added.
“Facts will come out only after they are questioned. As far as the Hyderabad police is concerned, we have so far not been informed about anybody’s role. We have just assisted the Bangalore police in picking them up,” police said.
Sources, however, failed to confirm or deny whether more suspects were picked up besides Obaid.