NEW DELHI: A suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant was arrested with 2.5 kg of RDX by the Special Cell of the Delhi police from near the Seelampur Metro station on Thursday. The militant was to hand over the explosives to an LeT module that was to carry out blasts here on Republic Day. A hunt has been launched for the other militants.

According to Joint Commissioner of Police Karnal Singh, the Special Cell had in March 2005 smashed an LeT module by killing three terrorists in an encounter and arresting six others.

During interrogation they disclosed the name of one of their men, Iftikhar Alam, a resident of Gaya in Bihar. The Special Cell, with the help of the intelligence agencies, tried to trace Iftikhar but failed . However on Thursday, the intelligence agencies tipped off the Special Cell that Iftikhar would come near the Seelampur Metro station to deliver explosives to another LeT terrorist.

A trap was laid and the militant was arrested around 3-45 p.m. The police recovered the explosives, two detonators and a timer from him. He revealed that the explosives were given to him in Patna by a LeT conduit who had brought it from Nepal. Iftikhar was then directed to hand over the consignment to a person in Delhi.

He came here by the Sampoorna Kranti Express on Thursday and was waiting for the LeT conduit outside the Metro station when he was arrested. Iftikhar purportedly revealed that he did two training stints in terrorist camps in PoK.

He remained in touch with his handlers and received instructions from them through the Internet. He has also visited Bangladesh.

At his instance, several Special Cell teams have been mounting raids across the Capital city to identify and trace the other members of the module that had been sent to the capital to create disturbance during the Republic Day celebrations.

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