Bank accounts of two terror suspects frozen

PATNA: The bank accounts of two suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives – Abu Naeem Sheikh and Dhannu Raja alias

Bedar Bakht

– were frozen in Gopalganj on Friday on the instruction of National Investigation Agency (NIA).

While Sheikh, who had made Gopalganj his base, was arrested from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh on November 29, his associate Dhannu, former Gopalganj district secretary of NSUI, was nabbed by the NIA sleuths in Gopalganj on December 3. The NSUI had claimed that Dhannu had left the organisation three years back.

Sources said the two were plotting terror attacks on vital installations across the country. Sheikh was also a close associate of Abu Jundal, the alleged mastermind of 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai. Jundal was arrested from Delhi’s IGI airport on June 21, 2012 by the special cell of Delhi police after he landed in India from Saudi Arabia on a Pakistani passport.

Sources said Sheikh maintained an account with Indian Bank branch on Thave Road in Gopalganj. The account had a total deposit of Rs 20,000 when it was frozen on Friday. Sources said at least 12 persons were quizzed by an NIA team in Gopalganj on Friday. “These people had links with Sheikh and Dhannu,” they added.

The NIA officials also quizzed owners of two shops from were Sheikh had purchased a cellphone and a laptop by making payments through bank cheques. “One of the accounts operated by Dhannu had received more than Rs 10 lakh from abroad,” sources added.

They said Sheikh lived in Gopalganj from December 2014 to March this year. “Dhannu was assisting him in planning terror attacks at vital installations across the country,” sources said, adding Sheikh had conducted recce of more than six places in Bihar.