Lashkar-e-Tayyaba ultras joining AQIS?

Bengaluru: Will the interrogation of an alleged Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) operative, Asadullah Khan alias Abu Sufiyan (57), who is accused in the 2012 terror conspiracy case to eliminate some prominent Right wing politicians, journalists and senior police officers in Karnataka and Maharashtra blow the lid off the merger of LeT and Al Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS)?

Sufiyan, who was detained in Saudi Arabia for nearly a year, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in December last year from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai after he was deported from Saudi Arabia.

According to sources some of the alleged Indian LeT operatives and key conspirators, whom Sufiyan had met in Dammam and Riyadh in 2011 may have already fled Saudi Arabia and sought shelter with the AQIS in Pakistan to escape deportation and arrest by Indian authorities.

"They could have fled to Pakistan and joined the AQIS cadres to escape arrest and deportation. When it comes to India operations all terror outfits based in Pakistan merge to confuse enforcement agencies. AQIS is now gaining ground in India. LeT, Indian Mujahideen, which was an offshoot of banned Students' Islamic Movement of India, has also been dormant for some time" said an official source.

The NIA is investigating the 2012 terror conspiracy case and in its chargesheet in May 2013 had named Sufiyan for participating in conspiracy meetings in Saudi Arabia with alleged LeT suspects Abdul Bari alias Abu Hamza, Siddique bin Osman alias Abu Hanzala and Furkhan Bhai alias Abdullah from Hyderabad and a few youths from Karnataka and Maharashtra including Dr. Imran Ahmed - a dentist from Mysuru and Mohammad Akram alias Khalid from Aurangabad.