Another JeM terrorist held in UP, says ATS

Another suspected terror operative of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Habibul Islam alias Saifullah, 19, was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh anti-terrorist squad (ATS) on Sunday.
Saifullah is linked to the same terror group through which Mohammed Nadeem, 25, who was arrested from Saharanpur on Friday, was associated, police said. Saifullah is the third terror suspect to have been arrested in the past six days.
The ATS team apprehended Saifullah from his house in the Sayyedbada area of Fatehpur district on the basis of information from Nadeem, said Prashant Kumar, additional director general of police, law and order. He was later brought to Kanpur for further interrogation. The terror suspect hails from Motihari in Bihar, Kumar said.
Saifullah was arrested after his association with JeM was revealed and he was directly linked with terrorists based in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the police officer said. The suspect was in continuous touch with Nadeem, Kumar said. A dagger, a cell phone and a SIM card have been recovered from his possession.
Like Nadeem, Saifullah also has expertise in making virtual IDs and had prepared over 50 virtual IDs, sharing them with terrorists based in Pakistan and Afghanistan, said Naveen Arora, additional director general of police, Uttar Pradesh ATS. The suspect connected with his handlers in Pakistan and Afghanistan through social media and instant messaging applications like Telegram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, Arora added.
Saifullah was also a member of several jihadi groups in which videos and literature related to jihad were shared by his handlers,” the officer said. “He shared the same content to other prospective youth who showed interest towards jihad.”
Earlier on Friday, Nadeem, who was tasked by JeM to murder and suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Nupur Sharma, was arrested from western Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district.
Sharma had made an objectionable statement against Prophet Muhammad during a TV debate. Nadeem was allegedly also planning to carry out a suicide attack on an unspecified government building or a police station.
On August 9, the ATS had claimed to have foiled a terror plot to target Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers after the arrest of an alleged ISIS operative, Sabah-u-deen Azmi, from Azamgarh district. Azmi was in touch with ISIS recruiters Abu Umar and Abu Bakar Al-Shami through phone and instant messaging applications, ATS officials said.