My son is innocent, says father of arrested LeT operative

Days after NIA arrested Gul Nawaz from Thiruvanthapuram airport for his alleged involvement in LeT and Bangalore blast case, his father has asserted that his son is innocent and cannot be involved in terrorism.

Lucknow: Father of a suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative, who was arrested recently in Thiruvanthapuram, has claimed that his son is 'innocent'. The father of the accused terrorist has also alleged that a conspiracy has been hatched to drag his son into terrorism.

"My son went to Saudi Arabia 12 years back and he has visited us three times. Last we saw him in 2017 and he was supposed to come to India on September 21. But he was arrested by NIA at Thiruvanthapuram airport. My son cannot be a terrorist. I cannot believe that he can be associated with a global terror organisation like LeT," said Wamis, father of Gul Nawaz.

According to Wamis, Gul Nawaz used to earn his living by driving vehicles. Initially, he was engaged in welding work and is a simple man.

However, his relatives claimed that Nawaz's involvement in the terror-related activities was big trouble for them, adding that he was living in Saudi Arabia for last three years.

The central investigation agencies on Monday arrested two persons from Thiruvanthapuram International Airport for their suspected links with LeT and involvement in the 2008 Bengaluru blast case.

READ: NIA arrests two terrorists from Thiruvananthapuram Airport

The arrested persons have been identified as Gul Nawaz, a native of Uttar Pradesh, and Shoaib alias Fazil, a native of Kondat near Pappinissery, Kannur. They were interrogated for more than 2 hours at the airport and were later sent to Kochi.

Gul Nawaz was accused of raising funds for the LeT through hawala channels to sponsor terrorist activities in the country, while Shoaib was accused in the 2008 Bengaluru blast case, sources said.

The alleged terrorists were under the scanner of top central security agencies in terrorism cases and were nabbed in a highly-secretive joint NIA-RAW operation. They were taken into custody as soon as they arrived on from Riyadh.

Nawaz was accused of raising fund for the proscribed LeT from Saudi in a case registered in 2017. With this, a total of five persons have been arrested for terror suspected cases from Kerala within the last three days.