The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Man with two passports arrested

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 15, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Man with two passports arrested

Staff Reporter

He was earlier held on charge of aiding a terrorist group in connection with the bomb blasts in city

Mohd. Abdul Haleem

HYDERABAD: The city police on Friday arrested a man in possession of two passports with different names.

Mohd. Abdul Haleem was earlier held in 1993 on the charge of aiding and abetting an alleged terrorist group Ikwaan-ul-Muslimeen, conspiring to carry out a series of bomb blasts in the city. He was, however, acquitted of the charges subsequently.

After being exonerated, Haleem left for Saudi Arabia, using a passport he secured in his real name from the Mumbai Passport Office.

In 2004, he applied for a visa to fly to England from Saudi Arabia but his application was rejected.

The `doosra'

Since the consulate officials had stamped his passport indicating rejection of visa, he planned to secure a fresh passport.

In April 2004, Haleem came to the city and applied for another passport with the name Syed Javed from the Regional Passport Office here.

He flew back to Saudi Arabia and returned recently. On a tip-off, the Task Force South Zone team led by Inspector Iqbal Siddique picked him up. "Though he was acquitted of the charges in the 1993 case, his antecedents during his stay in Saudi Arabia are being verified," Mr. Siddique said.

According to the Inspector, Haleem was recruited as an activist of Ikwaan to undergo militant training at Bangladesh in 1993. The group's head in the city Nissar Ahmed Bhatt sent him to Kolkata. However, the city police arrested Bhatt from a lodge in Nampally and recovered firearms and explosive material from him.

During interrogation, Bhatt revealed about Haleem, who had fled Kolkata on learning about Bhatt's arrest.

Later, he surrendered before the police and was acquitted of the charges.

"In the backdrop of recent Mumbai blasts, we are crosschecking whether Haleem is connected to any terrorist group," the police said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh