Bangalore terror crackdown: Hyderabad student arrested

Hyderabad: The Bangalore Police arrested a student from Hyderabad on Friday evening in connection with 11 arrests that were made on Thursday in Bangalore. The 26-year old has been identified as Obaid Rehman and has been taken to Bangalore for further investigation.

The Bangalore Police had on Thursday claimed to have busted a terror module. The police arrested 11 people, including a journalist with a popular English daily and a DRDO engineer for having terror links. Sources said the arrests were made as they were planning to kill a prominent columnist with a Kannada newspaper. All have been sent to 14 day police custody.

The 11 people arrested have links with Lashkar-e-Toiba and HuJI, said Karnataka DGP Lalrokhuma Pachau. They had plotted to kill the columnist on Wednesday as he had written an anti-Islam article.

The 26-year, identified as Obaid Rehman, has been arrested in connection with the 11 arrests made on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference, Commissioner of Police Bangalore JP Mirji had earlier said a foreign-made pistol was also recovered. He added that those arrested were also planning to target prominent personalities of the state including MPs, MLAs and journalists.

Mirji said those arrested have links with Saudi Arabia-based LeT and HuJI terrorists and it is suspected that they have more supporters in other states. "Targeting individuals could have created communal tension," he added.

Sources say the Uttar Pradesh Police had provided their Bangalore counterparts the intelligence about the terror group, which has links with Indian Mujahideen. Sources add that the questioning of those arrested is on.

At least three arrests were made in Hubli in north Karnataka.

Meanwhile, four suspected Indian Mujahideen activists involved in the 2010 Chinnaswamy Stadium blast case were detained in Bangalore on Thursday for questioning, police said.

Fifteen people were injured when two bombs exploded at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 18, 2010 on the eve of the Bangalore-Mumbai IPL semifinal match.

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