UP ATS arrests accomplice of JeM operative 'tasked to kill' Nupur Sharma

Mohammed Nadeem, allegedly tasked with killing Nupur Sharma, was arrested two days ago

The Anti Terrorist Terrorist (ATS) squad of the Uttar Pradesh police nabbed an alleged operative of the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) from Kanpur, about 90 kilometres from here, on Sunday.

Habibul Islam alias Saifullah, a resident of Motihari district in Bihar, was an accomplice of Mohammed Nadeem, who was allegedly tasked with killing suspended controversial BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma and was arrested a few days ago from UP's Saharanpur town, police sources told DH.

Police officials in Kanpur said that the cell phone recovered from Saifulla contained numbers of JeM operatives and members of some other terror outfits based in Pakistan and Afghanistan. ''We are scanning the messages and chats from Saifulla's cell phone,'' said a senior police official.

Also read: UP Anti-Terrorist Squad arrests JeM terrorist 'tasked with killing' Nupur Sharma

The official said that Saifulla was an expert in making fake social media IDs and that he had also created a fake ID for Nadeem. ''Saifulla was connected with his handlers based in Pakistan and Afghanistan through social media,'' the official added.

He said that Saifulla also used to make 'jihadi videos' and shared them with people. Although Saiffula belonged to Bihar, he had been living at Sayyadbara locality in UP's Fatehpur district for the past several months.

The police had claimed that Nadeem, who was nabbed from Saharanpur, had admitted during his interrogation that he had been eliminating Nupur Sharma, who had triggered a huge controversy over her objectionable remarks on Prophet Muhammad.