NIA arrests Lashkar recruiter who posed as a teacher

National Investigating Agency (NIA) Thursday said that it has arrested one Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) recruiter from north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.

The NIA said that today (April 15) it arrested one member of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) namely Altaf Ahmed Rather s/o Gulam Nabi  r/o Bandipora, Kashmir in LeT Recruitment Module case. (RC-20/2020/NIA/DLI).

“The case relates to the arrest of  Tania Parveen d/o Alamin Mondal by West Bengal Police for her association with militant organization Lashkar-eTaiba".

Tania Parveen, a young woman from Baduria Kolkata, fell in love with Kashmiri youth, Altaf Ahmed Rather who introduced Tania to members of various militant groups.

He also tried to attract other men with Tania. Altaf also wanted to use the girl to form a branch of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba in West Bengal.

Tania was arrested in March last year. The NIA arrested Altaf from Kashmir on Wednesday.

ALSO READ: “It’s Time To End America’s Longest War”: Joe Biden Details Timeline To Pull Troops From Afghanistan

Rather, a recruiter for LeT, was arrested from his residence in Bandipora district in Kashmir, NIA officials said. He was wanted in a case registered in Bengal last year following the arrest of a woman, Tania Parveen, for her association with the terror group, a NIA spokesman said.

According to intelligence sources, the NIA has received a transit remand from Srinagar NIA court judge Manjit Singh Manhas. Altaf is being brought to Kolkata on Thursday night. Today, he will be produced in the NIA court in Kolkata on Friday.

According to the NIA, the militant, identified as Altaf son of Ghulam Nabi, is one of Lashkar's strongholds in Kashmir. Resident of Ajas village of Bandipora, he is a local school teacher.

ALSO READ: Hospitals Overwhelmed, Graveyards Overflowing As Covid-19 Infections Surge In India

The NIA said that he would be brought to Kolkata and taken into their custody and interrogated in detail.

Rather is a school teacher and was a sympathiser of the LeT. Parveen had come in contact with him over social media platforms and he was instrumental in introducing her to LeT members based in Pakistan, in pursuance of a conspiracy to radicalise, motivate and recruit youths for violent jihad on India,” he said.

Tania, a college student from Malaypur village in Baduria, was arrested by the STF of the state police. The NIA later took charge of the case.

Chargesheets have been filed against Tania under various sections of the UAPA, including 121A, 124A, 120B (sedition and conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, last September.

Sources claimed that the detectives received several letters from Tania's house besides her mobile phone after her arrest.

ALSO READ: 20-30% Covid-19 infected people lose natural immunity against infection in 6 months: Study

Later in the interrogation, Tania also told the detectives that the two had formed a relationship in 2016 through a conversation on Facebook. Altaf allegedly taught her Arabic, Kashmiri and Urdu, as well as slowly brainwashing her.

However, she never met Altaf, At Altaf's direction, she got in touch with various army and police personnel on Facebook. In addition, she used to open WhatsApp groups and add various young people to it.

Detectives claim that Altaf Tania was linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, Al-Qaeda in the Subcontinent (Aqis), Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, and Ansar ul-Islam, militant groups active in the subcontinent. Detectives believe that the Pakistani spy agency ISI had also contacted the Kashmiri youth.