Friday, July 28 2006 12:34 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Faizal Sheikh, who was arrested last night along with his brother Muzammil for alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba links, is suspected to be the fundraiser for the terrorist outfit in Mumbai, Anti-Terrorism Squad sources said here today (July 28, 2006).

Faizal, arrested in connection with the July 11 Mumbai serial blasts, allegedly used the 'hawala' mode to acquire funds from Pakistan and the Middle-East, sources said.

Help of Central agencies to probe the hawala racket that helped Faizal transfer funds for the illegal activities will be taken, and some arrests in this connection are also likely, ATS sources said.

Mumbai Crime Branch officials who picked up Faizal, a resident of Mira road in nearby Thane district and his Bangalore-based software programmer brother Muzammil, said that Faizal and Dr Tanvir Ansari an LeT suspect who was arrested last week were motivators of the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir-based terrorist outfit and were active in Mumbai.

"Faizal was placed higher in terms of LeT activities in the western parts of the country," crime branch sources said.

It was Faizal who motivated Ansari to undergo training at LeT camps in Pakistan and Pak-occupied Kashmir and arranged the visit with the help of his brother Muzammil, sources said.

"Subsequently, Ansari also started motivating people to join LeT training, some of them being the arrested LeT suspects including Jamir Sheikh of Mumbai and Sohail Sheikh of Pune," they said.