Abdul Rehman Kataki was operating from Cuttack.
By Sreekanth A Nair
A joint team of Delhi Police and Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Police arrested Mohammed Abdul Rehman Kataki, a suspected operative of al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), from Paschimkachha, a village near Cuttack in the state of Odisha.
“We received a requisition from the Delhi Police last night and constituted a team headed by Cuttack DCP Sanjeev Arora and Bhubaneswar DCP Satyabrata Bhoi. With the Delhi Police team, we raided the village and arrested Abdul Rehman,” Bhubaneswar police commissioner Sharma said.
Abdul Rehman has been under police surveillance for years and his mobile phone has been traced by the police that led to his arrest at around 2.30 am on Wednesday. He is the first person arrested in the state for terror links.
He is believed to have strong links with the militant group and has been trying to expand the network of AQIS in India, which was formed in September 2014 with an aim to expand operations across India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
“A mobile phone, a passport and a tablet were seized from him following the raid. Preliminary investigation revealed that Rehman worked as an organizer, facilitator and recruiter of al-Qaeda’s Indian wing,” RP Sharma said.
Police suspect that he has international links too. Rehman has visited Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Dubai.
His elder brother Tahiyar Ali was also arrested in 2001 in connection with the terror attack on the American Centre at Kolkata.
A Ph.D. holder in Arabic and Hadith from Darul Uloom Deoband in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur, 37-year-old Rehman runs a madrasa at Tangi in Cuttack. The police have found that he has connections in Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bengaluru.
He has conducted several community meetings in the states of Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka and was once detained by Jharkhand police and banned from entering Ranchi for delivering controversial speeches.
He was taken to Delhi for further investigation after getting transit order from a Cuttack court. The special cell of Delhi police has registered a case against many terrorist operatives.