Bengaluru Muslim cleric picked up by police; terror link rumours erupt

Bengaluru, Jan 8: A 50-year-old Muslim cleric from Bengaluru, who was picked up from a team of the Delhi Police Special Cell for unknown reasons, is now reportedly facing terror charges.

Maulana Anzar Shah Khasmi (50) a resident of Ilyas Nagar in Banashankari 2nd Stage in Bengaluru South was reportedly arrested on charges of making hate speeches and having links with a terrorist organisation in Pakistan, according to a few media reports.

Khasmi was at the house of one of his students in Ilyas Nagar at 9.30 pm on Wednesday for dinner when he was called out by some men. They claimed to be from the ATS and wanted to ask him a few questions. Khasmi informed his student Mohammed Asif that he would return in some time, but was not to be seen.

Residents set out on a search of the moulvi. On not finding him, they filed a missing complaint with the K.S. Layout police on Thursday morning. A local autorickshaw driver Jabbar is also missing.

Khasmi was preacher in Makkah mosque in Banashankari for the past four years. He had shifted to Ilyas Nagar a month ago.

“We do not know why he was taken or whether they were really policemen,” Mr. Asif told media persons, adding that the moulvi was popular in the area.

The mosque committee is contemplating legal action to trace the moulvi, he said.

Meanwhile, a senior police officer confirmed that the 50-year-old moulvi had been picked up by Delhi police, but refused to elaborate on the charges under which he had been detained.