THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Ranchi, August 23: A day after the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the Delhi police arrested four persons, including Dr Ishtiyaq from Ranchi, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) swung into action and summoned Bablu Khan to probe whether Al Qaeda, a terrorist organisation, was funded by land scamsters in Ranchi. He has been asked to appear before the ED sleuths on August 26 (Monday).
Bablu Khan is the brother of Afsar Khan, who is in jail in the Ranchi land scam, and father-in-law of Talha Khan, who is also in jail. Dr Ishtiaq has been associated with Bablu Khan’s hospital.
“We will interrogate Bablu Khan to investigate whether the terrorist organization was funded by the illegal money generated from the multi-crore land scam in Ranchi,” said a senior ED official.
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Afsar Ali and Talha are charge-sheeted in the land case related to Army land. Bablu Khan is also an active worker of the Congress, which runs the government in Jharkhand in coalition with the JMM. They are allegedly involved in forging documents to usurp large tracts of land in Jharkhand.
Dr Ishtiyaq and others were arrested on Thursday
Notably, the ATS team arrested Dr Ishtiyaq from Bariatu in Ranchi on Thursday. The Delhi Police and the Jharkhand ATS took joint action against the Al Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) module and arrested four people after raiding three districts of Jharkhand- Ranchi, Hazaribagh and Lohardaga. Dr Ishtiyaq, who was said to be the Module leader, is related to Bablu Khan by family.
Others who were also arrested included Faizan alias Munna from Lohsinghana in Hazaribagh, Md Rizwan and Mufti Rahmatullah from Chanho in Ranchi.
Dr Ishtiyaq was working as a radiologist in Medica Hospital, Ranchi.
He earlier used to practice in Azad Nagar under Mango police station in Jamshedpur.
Meanwhile, Altaf, who is associated with this module, was taken into custody while taking training in handling weapons from Bhiwadi in Rajasthan. He is the elder son of Muslim Ansari, a resident of Kauwakhap village under Kudu block of Lohardaga.
A statement from Delhi Police yesterday said that the Al Qaeda module was being led by Dr Ishtiyaq from Ranchi. He had the intention of declaring ‘Khilafat’ within the country and carrying out serious terrorist activities.
According to the investigation agencies, Altaf, a resident of Lohardaga, had gone to Bhiwadi in Rajasthan to get arms training. From there, he was detained by Delhi Police along with his other associates.
