Liyakat Shah case: Sabir Khan Pathan evades arrest, NIA may declare him PO

NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is likely to declare Sabir Khan Pathan, claimed by Delhi Police as an accomplice of Liyakat Shah, a proclaimed offender as efforts to arrest him have yieled no reults so far.

Also, an officer of elite Special Cell of Delhi Police would be called again for questioning in connection with the arrest of Shah who was an ex-militant and returning to Kashmir Valley under Jammu and Kashmir's rehabilitation policy, official sources said here.

Shah was arrested by the anti-terror Cell of Delhi Police on March 20 at Saunali border when he was crossing over with his wife and children and the police claimed he was a Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist who had come to carry out attacks in the national capital.

However, after state Chief Minister Omar Abdullah personally intervened in the matter, the matter was handed over to NIA. Shah got a bail on May 17 and is at present in his home in North Kashmir.

The sources said efforts to nab Khan, who was alleged to be the accomplice of Shah and supposed to have dumped the arms and ammunition in the room, had not fructified so far and the probe agency was now planning to declare him as proclaimed offender. A non-bailable warrant against had already been issued by an NIA court here.

Khan, who had ironically given barracks of Special Cell, Lodhi Road, as his address while booking the room Haji Arafat Guest House in Jama Masjid, had been missing ever since the case was transferred to NIA.

A native of Shajapur in Madhya Pradesh, Khan's family had expressed its inability to give his whereabouts and also told the visiting sleuths of NIA that they were fearing for his life, the sources said.