NIA announces reward to catch Delhi Police’s ‘source’

NEW DELHI: The NIA today announced a cash reward of Rs two lakh for information leading to arrest of Sabir Khan Pathan, whom Delhi Police had projected as an accomplice of Liyakat Shah but turned out to be a possible “source” of its elite anti-terror force Special Cell.

“Any person from public, who gives any reliable information about the whereabouts of this person, leading to his arrest, will be rewarded,” NIA said in a statement.

Shah was arrested by the anti-terror Cell of Delhi Police on March 20, 2013 at Saunali border when he was crossing over with his wife and children and the police claimed he was a Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist who had come to carry out attacks in the national capital.

Shah was returning home under the then Jammu and Kashmir Government’s surrender policy.

During investigation by the NIA, it was established that Shah had been framed and the ammunition dumped inside a guest house in old Delhi had been kept by Pathan.

A non-bailable warrant against Pathan has already been issued by an NIA court here.

The NIA has named Pathan as absconder as the main accused who had allegedly planted weapons on Shah to project him as a militant of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen.

Ironically, according to chargesheet filed by NIA in a special court, the address of Khan alias ‘Pathan’ as mentioned in a lodge in old Delhi as well as for his SIM card was “Barrack NO. 2, Special Cell Niwas, BG 21, Lodhi Colony, New Delhi”. (AGENCIES)