In an undercover operation, the Intelligence Bureau has caught the chief of the south India operations of the Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami.
Commissioner Prasada Rao told the media that the arrested, Muhammad Amjad alias Khwaja, was picked up from Chennai. Khwaja is likely to have information on the Hyderabad twin blasts of 2007 – that took place at Lumbini Park and at Gokul Chat Bhandar.
Police are also trying for clues on Shahid alias Bilal, another terror operative. Khwaja and Bilal were childhood friends hailing form Malakpet in Hyderabad, and went on to get trained in the Chittagong forests in Bangladesh and then in PoK. The duo took part in quite a few terror operations in India. Khwaja, based in Bangalore, mobilizes strikes in south India. Bilal was killed in Pakistan 2 years ago.
There was an Interpol red corner notice against Khwaja after the 2005 blast at the Special Task Force Office in Hyderabad. Then, there was a case booked against Khwaja after the bombings in Hyderabad in August 2007, after which he was out on bail. The IB also suspects that Khwaja had a part to pay in the Ajmer blasts of 2008.
The Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami is a Bangladeshi militant outfit. Apart from HuJI, Khwaja reportedly has links with Laskar-e-Toiba, and Jaish-e-Mohammed, and also with Pakistan’s ISI.