A British national Al Qaeda terrorist on a mission to radicalise Rohingya Muslims to fight in Myanmar has been arrested in Delhi, police said on Monday.
Deputy Commissioner of Police PS Kushwah said Shami Rehman, 27, was arrested near Shakarpur bus stand in east Delhi on Sunday evening.
Kushwah said he was carrying a fake voter identification card in the name of Shumon Haq from Bihar.
Rehman, who had been an operative of Al Qaeda for the last four years, had received a three-month arms training in Syria and had fought in Alleppo, Kushwah said. Police also recovered a pistol and four cartridges from him.
Police said the accused’s mission was to set up base Manipur or Mizoram and radicalise Rohingya Muslims to fight the military in Myanmar.
Kushwah said Rehman was previously working in Bangladesh and was jailed.
“He had radicalised around a dozen people in Bangladesh,” he said, describing him as a “hardcore terrorist”.
The officer said the man was in India for the past two months and was in touch with different people from south India, West Bengal as well as Jammu and Kashmir.
The officer said Rehman’s family owned a residence in central London.
Thousands of Rohingya Muslims have led Myanmar and taken refuge in Bangladesh — and some in India too — to escape violence in the wake of a military crackdown.