Hunt for LeT men who sought recruits in Muzaffarnagar

Delhi Police are looking for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives who tried to recruit in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district following last year's riots, said sources Tuesday.

Delhi Police, on the basis of inputs by an intelligence agency, registered in December a case of criminal conspiracy and membership of the banned terror outfit.

Acting on the information, Md. Shahid and Md. Rashid were arrested from Haryana's Mewat district.

During interrogation, police found that Rashid along with another LeT member went to Deoband and met Liaqat, a 58-year-old resident of Muzaffarnagar and a government school teacher, Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) S.N. Srivastava told a press conference.

Srivastava said both of them stayed at Liaqat's house for a few days.

Liyaqat took the two to Thana Bhawan railway station in Muzaffarnagar district, where he arranged their meeting with Zameer, another resident of Muzaffarnagar, and left the place.

Srivastava skirted a query on recruitment, saying now there is a one-sided version from those who have been arrested and "we are now looking to arrest more LeT members".

He said that the "truth will be unravelled after more arrests".

Another investigating officer told IANS that Zameer has a criminal background and he constructed mosques.

Police sources said Shahid and Rashid with the other LeT member went to collect scriptures from Muzaffarnagar to radicalise the riot victims to join the outfit.

Liyaqat and Zameer belong to Muzaffarnagar but they were not riot victims, said Srivastava.

The duo told Zameer they want to kidnap people and demand ransom money for the construction of a mosque in the area. Zameer, however, backed off.

Rashid and the other person then went back to Mewat through Palwal.

Liyaqat and Zameer were detained and their statements were recorded.

Sources said that a search is now on for LeT operatives Abdul Subhan, Aftab Ansari, Aamir Raza Khan and Jawed Baluchi.

Abdul Subhan is wanted as he along with Rashid was also planning to kidnap people for ransom for construction of mosques.

The September riots in Muzaffarnagar claimed over 60 lives, and displaced over 43,000 people.