LeT terrorist Abdul Aziz, wanted for plotting blasts, to be brought to Hyd

Hyderabad: Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Abdul Aziz alias Giddah Aziz alias Ashrafi alias Ukbah of Hyderabad, who is wanted by the TS police in connection with the conspiracy to bomb the Ganesh temple at Secunderabad and the Hyderabad blasts cases, will be brought to the city on Thursday from Uttar Pradesh. Abdul Aziz, who was deported from Saudi Arabia, was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh ATS at the Lucknow airport.

He was earlier involved in recruiting Hyderabadis like Nissar (an ex-cop) for jihadi terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. His name figured in the confessions of many terror suspects arrested in Hyderabad. Abdul Aziz is the son of Mohammad Mahtab Ali, who was a resident of Babanagar, Jalpally and Pahadisharief.

In 2001 he was involved in a conspiracy to bomb Hyderabad and a case was registered by the SIT. In 2004 in a case that was transferred to Andhra Pradesh CID he was accused of conspiracy to bomb the Ganesh temple in Secunderabad. He went to Saudi Arabia in the 1990s and came in touch with LeT’s terror operatives.

“He was an expert in making improvised explosive devices (IEDs). He was arrested on August 28, 2001 and was released on bail on December 4, 2001. He jumped bail in August 2003 and had been absconding since then. On February 3 he was deported to India from Jeddah by the Saudi authorities,” said a police official.

Terror suspect Mohammed Nissar alias S.K. Maviya, of Nissar, told the police that his “guru” Aziz was active in recruiting men to fight in Bosnia and Chechnya and had shifted his focus to Iraq and Afghanistan later. The police will now check whether Aziz is the Abu Abdel Aziz who appeared at a LeT conference at its headquarters in Muridke near Lahore and was praised for his “heroic role” in Bosnia and Kashmir.