The Special Cell of Delhi Police on Sunday, 29 March, arrested a suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) handler from the Ghazipur area in Delhi. The officials have identified the accused as Shabir Ahmed Lone, a “hardcore and highly trained terrorist” with links to handlers operating on behalf of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan.
Shabir Ahmed Lone, the officials said, is a resident of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, and was involved in putting up anti-national posters across Delhi and Kolkata.
A senior police officer said, “Shabir Ahmed Lone, also known by aliases Raja and Kashmiri, is a resident of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir and was allegedly operating as the handler of a recently busted module involved in pasting anti-national posters across multiple locations in Delhi and Kolkata.”
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The officer said that Shabir Ahmed Lone was wanted by the police in connection with the LeT module recently unearthed in the metro poster case on 22 February.
What was seized from him? Police officials said that during the arrest, multiple foreign currencies and other incriminating material were seized from his possession.
“These included approximately 2,300 units of Bangladeshi Taka, 1,400 units of Nepalese currency, 5,000 units of Pakistani currency, and 3,000 units of Indian currency,” they said.
Raising suspicion about cross-border communication and operational coordination, the police also seized a Nepalese SIM card from his possession.
The officer said, “The module was being run at the behest of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), with Lone acting as a key conduit between handlers based abroad and operatives on the ground in India.”
Who is Shabir Ahmed Lone? Shabir Ahmed Lone was previously arrested in 2007 by the Special Cell, and an AK-47 rifle and a hand grenade were recovered from his possession. He was again arrested in 2015 in Srinagar under the jurisdiction of Parimpora Police Station.
During 2007, he had come to Delhi to carry out targeted killings.
He is a highly trained operative who has undergone terror training "Daura-e-Aam" (basic terror training) and "Daura-e-Khaas" (advanced terror training) from the Muzaffarabad LeT camp in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, PTI reported. He later fled to Bangladesh and worked to rebuild a fresh terror network targeting India.
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During his stay in Bangladesh, Lone reportedly established links with new handlers affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba. These handlers, identified by their code names Abu Huzaifa and Sumama Babar, were operating on behalf of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Investigations revealed that Lone had set up an operational base in Kolkata, using it as a launching pad for activities across multiple states. From there, the module conducted a "test run" – pasting pro-Pakistan and anti-India posters at prominent locations in Delhi and Kolkata to assess their operational reach and gauge the authorities' response.