A person identified as Ulfat Hussain alias Mohammad Saiful Islam alias Afzal alias Hussain Malik, affiliated with the Hizbul Mujahideen was arrested in Moradabad by a joint team of Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and Katghar police.
The report stated that the culprit was plotting to carry out a major terror attack.
Ulfat Hussain had been at large with a bounty of ₹25,000 because he had been declared terrorist. He had been absconding for 18 years. Ulfat Hussain was a resident of Fazalabad, Surankot, Poonch (Jammu and Kashmir) and was first arrested in 2001 from Katghar police station area of Moradabad.
He had been on the run since 2002 and is an active member of the Hizbul Mujahideen. After reappearing in Moradabad he cultivated four Moradabad youngsters – Mohd Taqi, Rizwan Ahmed, Zafar and Naseem. He later sent them to Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) for training and they returned to India with a large quantity of arms, which they stashed at a safe house in Ramnagar, Uttarakhand.
His first arrest was on July 9th 2001, when a huge cache of weapons was recovered from his possession. This included an AK-47 rifle, an AK-56 rifle, two pistols, 12 hand grenades, 50 detonators, 29 kg of explosives, and 507 live cartridges. However, he managed to secure bail, and since then had been absconding for almost 2 decades.
A court in Moradabad had issued a warrant against him, and the local police had declared a bounty of ₹ 25,000 for his capture. The UP ATS had been successful in tracking him and carried out the arrest.
Several cases were registered against Ulfat Hussain under 307 IPC, Arms Act, POTA, and criminal Law Act. A permanent arrest warrant had been issued against him in 2015.
As per reports, Ulfat Hussain had taken terrorist training in 1999-2000. Post his training, he arrived in Moradabad with plans of orchestrating a terror attack. The weapons and explosives recovered from him were brought from Pakistan.
ATS Inspector in-charge Sudhir Kumar Ujjwal, Katghar police station Sub-Inspector Vimal Kishore, Vipin Kumar, and the team of ATS saharanpur field unit were involved in making this operation successful.
