Bangladesh-based terror outfit helped PFI men arrange explosives for terror plot

Bangladesh-based terror outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen helped the two members of Popular Front of India (PFI), arrested in Lucknow, in arranging explosives and firearms to carry out terror activities in UP and other parts of the country, said UP STF and ATS officials on Thursday.

The special task force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh police arrested the two PFI members, Asad Badruddin and Feroz Khan, both residents of Kerala, from Lucknow's Gudamba area on Tuesday. Sixteen high explosive devices with battery detonators, a pistol and live cartridges were recovered from them.

The ATS booked them for illegal possession of explosives, firearms and waging war against the country.

During interrogation, the two accused revealed that they visited Bangladesh a few months ago to seek Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen's help for arranging explosives and firearms to trigger terror blasts in India, said an ATS official. The two accused were quizzed rigorously on the first day of their seven-day custody.

A senior STF official said Jammat-ul-Mujahideen was operating in Bangladesh for the last 23 years. It was declared a terrorist organisation and banned by the government of Bangladesh in February 2005 after it carried out attacks on some NGOs.

Another police official said identities of five other members of PFI's hit squad had been established and efforts were on to trace them.