By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, December 17, 2015 : Maulana Abdur Rahman, the suspected Al-Qaeda Indian Sub Continent (AQIS) terrorist had links with a terrorist involved in the Glasgow International Airport attack in Scotland in 2007.

This was revealed by Bhubaneswar-Cuttack commissioner of police Dr Rajendra Prasad Sharma here on Thursday.

Rahman was on Tuesday night arrested by the Delhi and Odisha police during joint raid operation at his residence in Paschimakachha village under Jagatpur police limits in Odisha’s Cuttack district.

“The Delhi police during its course of investigation has come to know that Rahman had links with Kafeel Ahmed, a Bengaluru-based youth, who succumbed to burn injuries in a failed attempt to ram an explosive-laden jeep into the Glasgow International Airport in Scotland in 2007,” Sharma said.

Keeping possible threats of terrorist attacks in the state, Sharma said the Odisha police is considering to launch a special cell in line with the one in Delhi police.

The Delhi Police has taken Rahman on two-day transit remand last night for further interrogation in connection with a case.

He further informed that during a preliminary verification, a case has been registered against Rahman by the Cantonment Police in Cuttack in connection with his involvement in an incident at Sahi Masjid inside the Killa Fort in February, 2011.

“Police had arrested him and framed a charge-sheet. The case is now sub judice,” he added.

Earlier mass education minister, Devi Prasad Mishra had said that the Madrasa run by Rahman was not approved by his department. Sharma also said that the Commissionerate Police was presently verifying the madrasa run by Rahman in the Tangi area of Cuttack where around 80 children in the age group of 10-15, mostly from Jharkhand, are studying.

Apart from this, police are now trying to collect information about the close associates of Rahman and their modus operandi in Cuttack and other parts of the state, he said.

Stating that Rahman used to spend most of his time outside Odisha, the CP said the Delhi Police, during the interrogation of Mohammand Asif, one of the founder members of AQIS who was arrested earlier, had come to know about his links with Rahman.

Asif, who had undergone training on terrorism outside India, was in charge of extending the activities of AQIS in India, Dr Sharma said.