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Delhi Police special cell, on Sunday, nabbed 'most wanted' LeT handler, Shabir Ahmed Lone, who allegedly used Bangladeshi nationals to evade detection and plan attacks on religious sites
A months-long operation by the Delhi Police special cell culminated on Sunday night with the arrest of Shabir Ahmed Lone, a senior Lashkar-e-Taiba commander long classified as one of India's most wanted terrorists.
Lone, who allegedly established an operational base in Kolkata and directed reconnaissance of prominent Hindu temples in Delhi, is being seen by intelligence officials as a critical node in a cross-border terror pipeline running from Pakistan through Bangladesh and into India.
Who Is Shabir Ahmed Lone, Alias Raja Kashmiri?
Shabir Ahmed Lone is not a new name to Indian security agencies. He was previously arrested in Delhi in 2007 and again in Jammu and Kashmir in 2016, making his latest apprehension his third known encounter with Indian law enforcement.
Despite his history, he had managed to rebuild his operational network, this time with a far more sophisticated structure designed to exploit India's porous borders and blend into civilian populations.
Operating under the alias Raja Kashmiri, Shabir Ahmed Lone had allegedly been tasked by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence to establish a Lashkar cell in Bangladesh, from where he orchestrated a cross-border terror network specifically aimed at radicalising Indian and Bangladeshi youth.
The Kolkata Base and the Delhi Temple Reconnaissance
At the heart of the alleged operation was a local base established in the Hatiara area of Kolkata, which served as a staging ground for the network's activities inside India, according to a report by Times of India quoting Delhi Police. From there, module members fanned out to conduct reconnaissance of high-footfall commercial and religious sites.
Acoording to the ToI report, among the locations surveilled were the Kalkaji temple in Delhi and the Gauri Shankar temple in Chandni Chowk, two of the capital's most visited religious sites.
The 'Test Task': Anti-National Posters Before the Al Summit
In one of the more operationally revealing details to emerge from the investigation, Lone allegedly directed a group of newly recruited operatives to paste anti-national posters across Delhi as a test of their capabilities ahead of the Al summit.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Pramod Kushwaha told the Times of India that the recruits "were the first set of recruits who were sent to Delhi and asked to paste anti-national posters before the Al summit as a 'test task.'"
The posters themselves were deeply inflammatory. They carried pro-Pakistan slogans, incendiary messaging about Kashmir, images of slain Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani, text in Urdu reading "We are Pakistanis, Pakistan is ours", and references to "Kashmir Solidarity Day", an occasion observed in Pakistan.
The recruits reportedly filmed themselves completing the task and sent the footage to Lone, who praised them over encrypted chats and instructed them to proceed to the next stage.
How a Journey Between Cities Led Police to the Network
The recruits established a base in Kolkata, reportedly completed their assigned task in Delhi, and then flew back. It was this very movement between cities that proved their undoing. Police tracked the recruits' journey, used it to identify the operatives, and arrested eight of them the following month, including seven Bangladeshi nationals. The arrests rattled Lone's Pakistan-based handlers sufficiently that Lone himself was then directed to re-enter India, intensify recruitment and meet assets to plan an attack.
The Arrest: Intercepted at Ghazipur After Crossing Through Nepal
Acting on precise intelligence about Lone's movements, a dedicated team led by Deputy Commissioner of Police Praveen Tripathi and Inspector Sunil Rajain, working in coordination with central intelligence agencies, intercepted Lone in Ghazipur on Sunday night. He had crossed into Nepal and entered India through the open border, a route increasingly favoured by operatives seeking to avoid scrutiny at formal entry points.
At the time of his arrest, police seized his mobile handset and a Nepali SIM card, along with a range of foreign currencies including 2,300 Bangladeshi taka, 5,000 Pakistani rupees and 1,400 Nepalese rupees, in addition to Indian currency.
A Network Built on Deception: Bangladeshi Nationals as Cover
Interrogation has begun to reveal the calculated logic behind Lone's recruitment strategy. Rather than relying on Kashmiri or Pakistani operatives who would attract immediate scrutiny from Indian security agencies, Lone allegedly sought to use Bangladeshi nationals who could assume Indian identities and blend seamlessly into local populations.
The initial recruits were reportedly drawn from Bangladeshi nationals working illegally in India's garment industry. They were offered money and the promise of a better life in exchange for joining the network, and were then asked to bring additional recruits on board. One key figure in this process was Malda-based Umar Farukh, whom Lone allegedly first indoctrinated before appointing him to spearhead LeT operations within India.
The Role of Saidul Islam and ISI's Bangladesh Setup
Police have also identified Lone's key accomplice as Saidul Islam, a Bangladeshi national who facilitated Lone's illegal entry into Bangladesh, arranged his logistics and provided him with hideouts. Islam was also the primary link who supplied Lone and Umar Faruq with details of a Tamil Nadu-based group connected to the network.
Lone is currently serving a five-day police remand and is being interrogated specifically about the ISI's operational setup in Bangladesh. Police told the court that custodial interrogation was essential to dismantle the remainder of the network, and that investigators still needed to trace the operation's handlers and identify the dealers responsible for distributing foreign currency through the chain.
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