Bihar Police want to quiz two for terror money link

Bihar Police will Monday seek the custody of Ayesha Bano and her husband Zubair, arrested from Karnataka on charges of providing financial help to terror suspects, police said here Sunday.

The couple was arrested from Mangalore in Karnataka and brought here for investigating an illegal money trail. They were sent to a 14-day judicial custody Saturday.

"Police will file an appeal Monday in court to take them on remand for interrogation," a police official said.

The couple was arrested by a Bihar Police team on the basis of an FIR lodged in Lakhisarai district after the arrest of four persons -- Gopal Kumar Goyal, Vikash Kumar, Ganesh Kumar and Pawan Prasad -- in connection with Hawala funding to Indian Mujahideen.

Bihar Police said they suspected the couple's involvement in funding the activities leading to the Patna serial blasts and that a two-day police remand will help them in their investigations.

Following a tip-off from the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Bihar Police arrested five people -- four from Lakhisarai and one from Dhanbad in Jharkhand -- on charges of providing financial help to terror suspects last week.

Bihar Police are investigating a possible link between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and the five arrested suspects, and also the couple and their links, if any, with the Indian Mujahideen terror outfit.

Ayesha, a mother of three, was a resident of Mercara in Karnataka's Coorg district. She converted to Islam after her marriage. She lived in Panjimogeru, about six km from Mangalore, with her family.

Her husband Zubair runs a bidi business in Mangalore.