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As a youngster he had often heard about the innumerable stories of ‘atrocities’ committed against members of his community, be it in Gujarat or Andhra Pradesh.
As he grew up, he witnessed how the people, with whom he had moved closely, ended up behind bars, one by one. He had also participated in protests staged against the arrest of his friends and relatives though he was then just a boy moving in the lanes and bylanes of the old city of Hyderabad.
These incidents, which he watched from close quarters, made Obaid-ur-Rehman a ‘committed’ cadre and steeled his resolve to teach the ‘infidels’ a lesson.
Obaid was picked up by the Bengaluru police on Frirday for conspiring to target political leaders and journalists, and planning attacks on vital installations.
Sources associated with the interrogation of Obaid disclosed to Express that the 21-year-old was the ‘most committed’ among the 12 terror suspects arrested by the Bengaluru police on Friday.
‘’He was taking instructions from his handlers in Saudi Arabia directly. Several telephone calls and emails were exchanged between Obaid and his handlers,’’ the sources said. In fact, Obaid was the main link between the four other terror suspects arrested by the Maharashtra ATS in Nanded on the same day.
‘’Several phone calls were exchanged among them. He was the main link between the terror suspects in Karnataka and Maharashtra,’’ the sources said.
‘’You people (police) and some political parties had left us with no option. Grave injustice was being done to us,’’ Obaid told his interrogators.
When his Saudi handlers were deciding on targets, Obaid took the lead saying the attacks begin first in Hyderabad and then in Bengaluru and other places.
‘’He short-listed the targets in Hyderabad which included a Hindu leader and two corporators including one from the BJP,’’ the sources said.
Quite interestingly, intelligence sleuths were aware that Obaid was drifting towards fundamentalism and that it was only a matter of time before he ‘proved himself’.
His telephone calls to Saudi Arabia were no secret as were his alleged links with the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) and Lashkar-e- Taiba (LeT), but the state police were in no mood to take action against him for fear of political implications.
His arrest was, therefore, left to the Karnataka police.
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