On August 5th, 2018, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) team arrested Let handler Habibur Rahaman @ Habib from IGI Airport, New Delhi. The team acted on a specific input that the accused originally resident of District Kendrapara, Odisha, presently based in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia against whom "Non Bailable Warrant" was earlier issued by the Special NIA Court, New Delhi in Case RC-20/2017/NIA/DLI, was coming to India on a flight from Riyadh.
As per reports, Habibur Rahman was one of the handlers of LeT terrorist Shaikh Abdul Naeem @ Nomi who was earlier arrested in 2007 while trying to infiltrate two Pakistani and one Kashmiri terrorist into India through Bangladesh. Shaikh Abdul Naeem later on escaped from the custody while he was being taken for court attendance to Maharashtra from Kolkata in August 2014. After his escape from custody, he again started his nefarious activities on the directions of his handlers based in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. A well-established conspiracy was hatched between the accused for targeting vulnerable locations in India with the intent of causing maximum damage.
Naeem was tasked to identify locations where terrorist attacks could be carried out. For this purpose, Naeem assumed different fake identities and visited different states including Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh and did reconnaissance of possible targets for terrorist attacks. Habibur Rahman, who is affiliated to proscribed terrorist organization LeT, arranged shelter/hideouts and funds for Shaikh Abdul Naeem on different occasions for carrying out terrorist activities in India on the directions of the LeT commander Amjad @ Rehan who is based in Pakistan.
Earlier, Naeem was arrested by NIA in Nov 2017 and he has been charge sheeted along with 10 other co-accused including Habibur Rehman. On Aug 06, 2018, the alleged accused Habibur Rahman had been produced in Patiala House Courts, New Delhi to seek NIA custody for the further interrogation, as per reports.
