Saturday, May 21 2005 19:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Lucknow: Two Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants involved in recruiting youth from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir were arrested in Lucknow today (May 21, 2005) along with explosive material.

The militants, identified as Sadat Rashid and Masood Alam, were in the State to mobilise youth for attending militant training camps, Special Task Force sources said.

Four kgs of explosive material, one kg morphine and an English revolver were recovered from the militants hailing from Jharkhand and Bihar.

On interrogation, Rashid said he had gone to Kashmir about two years ago for teaching in a madrasa where he was lured by a self-styled commander of the Lashkar, identified as Imran Maqbool alias Doctor Sunil, into joining their movement.

Rashid, who received training in using AK-47, pistol and grenades in Kashmir, was deputed the task of involving unemployed youth in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar with terrorist groups and he started to explore the possibility in Lucknow and Meerut, STF sources said.

The militant said he continued to take instructions for the job from Maqbool who also sent him a consignment of explosives and contraband.

He said he used to receive messages from Maqbool in a coded language who had provided him with at least Rs 60,000 alongwith other facilities till now.

The other militant, Masood Alam said he used to teach in various madrasas and arranged Rashid's meetings with unemployed youths, sources added.

The STF recovered two pieces of papers from the militants, which contained addresses of BSF, CRPF, RAW, ISI and CBI besides a telephone diary with some numbers in English and Urdu and a map of Lucknow besides their identity cards.