New Delhi: The Delhi Police Special Cell has arrested a senior commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba following a two month long operation that ended near the Bangladesh border. The suspect, Shabbir Ahmed Lone, was allegedly operating a terror module from a hideout near Dhaka and was wanted for recruiting youths for extremist activities across several parts of India.
Security officials said the arrest came after an extensive surveillance operation supervised by Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golcha. A special team led by senior officers tracked Lone after investigators uncovered his involvement in recruiting individuals for terror related activities in Delhi, Kolkata and Tamil Nadu. Authorities described the pursuit as a prolonged chase that eventually led to his capture near the international border.
Investigators revealed that Lone had previously been arrested by the Delhi Police in 2007 on terror charges. After being granted bail in 2019, he fled to Bangladesh and allegedly began rebuilding a network to support extremist operations. Intelligence agencies had since been monitoring his activities after receiving information that he was coordinating recruitment and propaganda from across the border.
During the investigation, police carried out raids in Kolkata in West Bengal and in Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu. These operations resulted in the arrest of eight operatives believed to be connected to the network. Officials said seven of those arrested were Bangladeshi nationals who had illegally obtained Indian identity documents.
Searches at the suspects’ hideouts led to the seizure of several electronic devices and financial instruments, including ten mobile phones containing incriminating data, multiple credit and debit cards, point of sale machines and Bangladeshi passports. Investigators also recovered photographs and location coordinates of a temple in Chandni Chowk, suggesting that key installations had already been surveyed.
Authorities believe the group was in an advanced stage of planning attacks when the network was disrupted. Technical analysis and coordinated raids across different states helped security agencies trace the suspects and dismantle the Bangladesh based terror module.
