Noted Muslim cleric Maulana Abdul Qavi, wanted by local police for the last ten years, was arrested here today for alleged anti-national activities and having links with terror groups Lashkar-E-Taiba and Jaish-E-Mohammad, official sources said.
Founder of Jamia Ashraf-ul-Uloom madrassa in Hyderabad, Qavi was arrested from Delhi airport this morning and brought to the city during the afternoon, a District Crime Branch offcial said.
Qavi has been 'wanted' by DCB for the last ten years in a case under the Prevention of Terrorist Activities (POTA) Act which was repealed after UPA-I came to power in 2004.
In the afternoon, Qavi was produced at the POTA court in Bhadra where the police requested the court to remand him to their custody for 21 days to find out more about the terror network.
In their remand application submitted to Additional Prinicipal Judge Geeta Gopi, DCB cited several reasons for Qavi's remand.
According to DCB, Qavi allegedly took part in the proxy war against India with direct or indirect support of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) and other terror outfits to avenge post-Godhra riots.
The DCB also alleged Qavi sent several youngsters to Pakistan-based training camps run by LeT and Jaish-E-Mohammad to spread terror in India.
These youngsters include Asghar Ali, an accused in Haren Pandya murder case, and Hyderabad-based most wanted terrorist Rasool Party who is absconding and belived to be in Pakistan.
DCB claimed 56 accused have been arrested since 2004 in the case for waging terror against the nation and 41 are still absconding.
