Court sends suspected LeT operative to NIA custody till Aug 17

New Delhi: A special court today sent Bahadur Ali alias 'Saifullah', a Pakistani national allegedly working for terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, to NIA custody till August 17 after the agency said it needed to decode the writings in a diary recovered from him.

According to court sources, Ali was produced before District Judge Amar Nath after expiry of his NIA remand and during an in-camera proceeding the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said that the writings required to be decoded to unearth the larger conspiracy.

The court allowed the NIA's plea to quiz Ali and also handed over the diary, which was earlier sealed, to the probe agency.

The sources said that the agency told the court that the diary was needed to be decoded as it would help in unearthing plans made by 21-year-old Ali and his associates.

In a new twist to the ongoing turmoil in Kashmir, NIA had yesterday cited Ali's confessional video to claim that unrest in the Valley was being orchestrated by Pakistan-based LeT, claiming that the terror outfit had played a major role in fueling the unrest, triggered by the encounter killing of a militant leader.

The agency has claimed that since the summer this year, the banned outfit, with the "help of Pakistani forces deployed on the border", pushed heavily armed terrorists into India with the direction to mix with local people, create disturbance, and attack police and security forces.

NIA had earlier told the court that along with his associates, Ali had planned terror attacks to "destabilise the security and sovereignty" of India.

A fourth-class dropout, Ali, who hails from Jahama village of Raiwind in Lahore, was arrested from village Yahama in Mawar area of Qalamabad, Handwara, in North Kashmir on July 25. The army had recovered three AK-47 rifles, two pistols and Indian Rs 23,000 from his possession.

According to NIA, Ali was trained at a Lashkar camp in PoK, including in map reading and operating GPS devices.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju had called Ali a "very good catch" and said his arrest will lead to many successes.