Police arrest Mumbai suspect's aide

A terror suspect arrested in New Delhi was a close aide of a prime suspect in the Mumbai terror attacks, India’s Home Minister said today.

P Chidambaram said Mohammed Omar Madni had links to banned Pakistan-based organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Madni worked closely with Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which India sees as a terrorist threat, Mr Chidambaram said.

Saeed was controversially released from custody in Pakistan this week, sparking an outcry in India.

Madni was arrested last night and has been remanded in custody until June 19. He is reported to have been a close aide of Saeed since 2001 and has been operating from Nepal since last year.

“It is a measure of the good intelligence and good investigative work done by intelligence agencies and police,” Mr Chidambaram added.

The 50-year-old is thought to be in charge of recruiting men and sending them to Pakistan to be trained in arms and explosives.

Mr Saeed’s close aide has also reportedly been involved in “talent scouting” for the LeT, which is an alleged front for Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Mr Saeed himself was released on Wednesday after being put under preventive custody in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks in November last year.

The Indian government has blamed the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and its chief for planning the attacks which killed about 200 people and left almost 700 others injured. The United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on the organisation in December last year.