Pune: Terror suspect was in constant touch with active members of Lashkar-e-Taiba based in J&K

An initial examination of the cell phone of arrested terror suspect Junaid Mohammed Ata Mohammed has revealed that he has exchanged a large number of calls with Jammu and Kashmir based numbers. His interrogation has also revealed that he was about to leave for J&K shortly but was arrested before he could do so.

Junaid (28), a native of Buldhana currently staying in Pune, was arrested by the Pune unit of the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad on Tuesday. He had been on the ATS' radar since December last year, after information was received about suspicious activities on his part.

“When we seized his phone while arresting him, we examined his call logs and found a large number of calls that he had made to and received from numbers based in J&K over the last couple of months. We are interrogating Junaid to find out more about these calls and have also sought registration details as well as Call Detail Records (CDRs) of the numbers he was in touch with,” an ATS officer said.

The ATS, in its remand application submitted to the court on Tuesday, has stated that Junaid was in touch with active members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba based in J&K.

The officer added that investigation so far has established that Junaid was going to travel to J&K soon, and the ATS suspects that he was going to meet his handler during this time.

“The increased interaction over the last couple of months and his plans to meet his handlers lead us to suspect that he was going to be assigned a mission soon. We are looking into his movements and interactions over the last few weeks to check if he had visited any vital installations in Pune or places that witness high footfalls, as these are usually targets of choice for terror attacks,” the officer said.

The ATS has also checked the five Facebook accounts that Junaid was operating and found a lot of recent activity. Investigation officers said that all five accounts were active and witnessed traffic till a couple of days before he was picked up.

Published on: Wednesday, May 25, 2022, 06:12 PM IST