Chinese nabbed on relay eve
The Delhi Police has picked up two Chinese nationals and their Delhi contact, named in the input, from different parts of the city ahead of the Olympic torch relay, reports Tushar Srivastava.
In a swift operation, the Delhi Police, acting on an input from the Intelligence Bureau, picked up two Chinese nationals and their Delhi contact, named in the input, from different parts of the city ahead of the Olympic torch relay to be held here on April 17.
As first reported by the Hindustan Times on Wednesday, IB had warned security agencies on possible attempts by suspected Chinese militants to disrupt the torch relay. The input had stated that five Chinese nationals from the troubled Xinjiang region of China and suspected to be involved in the separatist East Turkestan movement, had entered the Capital and could pose a threat to the torch relay.
IB had even provided their photographs along with the alert. Acting on the tip-off, a secret operation was launched. “We have managed to track down two of the Chinese named in the input. Their Delhi contact has also been traced. They are being interrogated at different locations. We can share no more information. Whatever has come out in the questioning has been communicated to the IB,” a senior officer said.
The IB had asked agencies to “urgently communicate the action taken by them in this regard”. “The interrogation is continuing. Nothing incriminating has come out till now,” the officer said.
The mobile phone records of numbers, 99901155** and 98993872**, of Mohammed Tariq, the Delhi contact named in the input are also being examined to find out who all he was talking to in India and abroad. Tariq stays in New Seelampur and runs a business of fancy lights imported from China.
The input had pinpointed information about the five “Uyghurs” – Mohammad Abdullah, Abdul Khalid, Umar Aziz, Yousaf Sattar and Abdullah Daoud - who were staying in Nizamuddin area. The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is a militant Uyghur organisation that has been advocating the creation of an independent Islamic state of East Turkestan in the Xinjiang region of China.
The United Nations and governments of United States, China among other countries, consider the ETIM a terrorist organisation.
