The investigations by the city ATS sleuths have revealed that terror suspect Faizal Hassan Mirza, who was arrested at Juhu in north-west Mumbai on Friday last, had allegedly planned to engineer terror attacks in Mumbai, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh with the help of his group members.

Informed ATS sources said here on Monday that Mirza, who was arrested by the city ATS sleuths in a a joint operation with Kolkata Special Task Force (STF), told the interrogators that he was waiting for “instructions” from his handlers abroad to undertake terror strikes in attacks in Mumbai,Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.

Mirza, who is suspected to have been roped in and trained as an operative by Lashkar-e-Taiba ( LeT), had planned terror attacks in public places of Mumbai and in the states of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.

The interrogation revealed that Mirza had undergone training for two weeks at terrorist outfit’s training camp in Karachi, where he was trained by his two handlers and one religious preacher. The training that Mirza had undergone was in weapon handling, explosive making and suicide attacks.

Mirza had left for Sharjah a few months ago on the pretext of taking up an overseas job. The fact remained that he had been called specially to Sharjah by Farooq Devadiwala, who is linked to Karachi-based underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and wanted in bomb blasts in Mumbai. Devadiwala had arranged air tickets for Mirza to go to Sharjah.

After spending few days in Sharjah, Devadiwala took Mirza to Dubai and arranged a flight to Pakistan via Nairobi.

Courtesy: The Pioneer, Tuesday, 15 May 2018 | TN RAGHUNATHA | Mumbai