The Hindu : National : Gujarat police seek custody of three Lashkar militants

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Friday, Jul 23, 2004

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National

Gujarat police seek custody of three Lashkar militants

By Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR, JULY 22. The Gujarat police have sought the custody of three jailed Lashkar-e-Taiba militants who were part of a 20-member module busted by the Jammu and Kashmir police here recently. The three are reported to have links with another Kashmir-based LeT militant, Babbar, who was killed during an abortive bid on the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, last month. A team, led by the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad, Mohammad Amin, visited Srinagar and held discussions with the police officials responsible for the crackdown. The team was granted access to the interrogation reports of the detained militants.

Government sources said the team had arrest warrants for three of them — Ishfaq Qadri, a university scholar, Parvez alias Khalid and an Imam — who were part of the gang and, according to police, had close links with one of the Lashkar militants who had planned the attack on Mr. Modi. The team is completing its investigation into the incident in which a number of questions were raised over the involvement of Ishrat, a student from Mumbai.

Procedural wrangle

However, the team returned today without making any arrests due to procedural difficulties. Since the trio had been detained under the Public Safety Act, the warrants had been addressed to the District Magistrate, Srinagar, who had slapped the PSA on them.

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