ATS arrests two more terror suspects from Maharashtra

MUMBAI: Two more terror suspects, who are the associates of the gang of trio which had yesterday exchanged fire with ATS in Aurangabad, were arrested from Maharashtra's Buldhana district, police said today.

"Two more terror suspects Akheel Khilji and Mohammed Jafar were arrested from their hideout in Buldhana district," a police official said.

The ATS had yesterday apprehended a fugitive suspect in 2008 Ahmedabad blasts that claimed 56 lives after gunning down his accomplice in an encounter in Aurangabad.

Yesterday, ATS officials had killed terror suspect Khaleel Qureshi (20) and nabbed two of his aides Mohammed Abrar Babu Khan (32), who is suspected to be involved in the Ahmedabad blasts, and Mohammed Shakeer (32) after an exchange of fire in Aurangabad. ATS head constable Aarif Shaikh Ismail was also injured in his left shoulder during the encounter, police had said.

Khilji and Jafar are associates of the same gang of the trio which had fired at ATS officials yesterday, they said.

The group, according to police, had carried out a spate of bank robberies in Madhya Pradesh and used the money for terror funding. It was planning to create a base in Maharashtra, sources said.

According to police, Abrar was in contact with the home-grown terror outfit Indian Mujahiddin (IM) through one of its key operatives Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqueer, who is wanted in several cases.

The gang, earlier headed by Abu Faizal, a former member of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), had also reportedly plotted to eliminate the judges of Allahabad High Court who had pronounced the verdict in the Babri Masjid case, police said.