AQIS Operative Abdul Rehman, Who Was Arrested From Cuttack, Gets 7.5 Years In Jail
New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: The Patiala House Court in Delhi today sentenced four Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) operatives, including Abdul Rehman who was arrested from Odisha’s Cuttack, to 7 years and five months of rigorous imprisonment.
The four are Mohd Asif, Abdul Rehman, Zafar Masood and Abdul Sami. Rehman was arrested from Jagatpur in December of 2015 over his alleged links with the AQIS.
The court had on February 10 convicted the four under relevant sections of Unlawful Activity (Prevention) Act while it pronounced the quantum of punishment today. A fine of Rs 25,000 was also imposed on the convicts.
On December 14, 2015, police arrested Asif, a resident of Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh, who was found to be the India head of AQIS.
“On the basis of his revelations, Zafar Masood was also arrested from Sambhal on December 15, 2015 and Mohd Abdul Rehman was nabbed from Cuttack, Odisha on December 16, 2015,” said a senior police officer of Delhi Police’s Special Cell.
According to the police, Rehman had visited Pakistan illegally and met top militants there including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Sajid Mir, both wanted in 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attacks.
“Abdul Sami, a resident of Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) was apprehended from Mewat on January 17, 2016. He was a Pakistan-trained militant,” police said.
During investigation, the names of Syed Mohd. Zeeshan Ali and Sabeel Ahmad also surfaced as part of a conspiracy for providing financial and logistics assistance to the cadres of AQIS in UAE.
Ali was deported from UAE in the year 2017 and was arrested in this case whereas Sabeel Ahmad was deported in the year 2020. Sabeel was initially arrested in a terror case in Bengaluru (Karnataka) by NIA from IGI Airport in Delhi and later on, he was arrested in this case,” said the official.
(With IANS inputs)
