Suspected terrorist nabbed near Bangalore with arms

The Bangalore police have arrested a suspected terrorist on the outskirts of the City early on Friday morning.

According to police, the 32-year-old man identified as Bilal alias Imran was carrying an AK-47 rifle, live cartridges, hand grenades and a satellite phone when he alighted from a bus at Jalahalli on the outskirts of Bangalore. The bus was heading to Bangalore from Hospet in Bellary district.

Additional Commissioner of Bangalore City Police Bipin Gopalakrishna told reporters that the arrest was made on the basis of a tip-off and the police officials were interrogating the suspect.

The suspected militant was carrying 300 rounds of AK 47 cartridges, four magazines, five hand grenades, besides the AK 47 rifle and a satellite phone. Though the police is yet to ascertain the terrorist organization to which he belongs, senior police officials suspect the militant, a native of Kashmir, could belong to the Lashkar E Tayyaba.

Preliminary investigation revealed that he had been staying in Hospet, about 350 kms from Bangalore, for the last one month in the guise of a handicraft vendor from Kashmir. Hospet is a tourist town, where a large number of Kashmiri refugees sell handicraft items to people visiting the nearby heritage site of Hampi.

The Bangalore police, which had apprehended the suspected terrorist on the basis of a tip-off from Central intelligence agencies, was working in co-ordination with the State Police and Central intelligence agencies, besides the Anti-Terrorist Cell.

The arrest of Bilal alias Imran soon after his arrival in Bangalore by a private bus from Hospet comes weeks after the Mysore police caught two suspected terrorists belonging to Al Badr outfit in the last week of October 2006.