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Bihar: Suspected Taliban terrorist holds Pak passport

January 23, 2010 12:46 IST

Ghulam Rasool Khan alias Khan Mirza, the Afghanistani national who was recently arrested in Purnia district in Bihar for his alleged links with the Taliban, holds a Pakistani passport.

According to sources, police have recovered a Pakistani passport, issued in 2005, and a diary from Khan.

During his interrogation, Khan revealed that he was a polyglot. "He told us that he can speak seven Indian languages including Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, English, Telugu, Kannada and Persian," a senior police official told rediff.com.

"He admitted that he had links with the Taliban in Afghanistan," said the official.

"Khan is being interrogated to collect more information about his activities in the district," Purnia Superintendent of Police N H Khan told rediff.com.

The Intelligence Bureau has sent a team to question Khan, who was remanded to police custody for two days on Friday.

Acting on a tip-off by the IB, the police arrested Khan in Purnia on January 13, and he was brought to Patna for further interrogation.

During the interrogation, "Khan confessed that he had worked as a driver for the Taliban in Swat Valley and Kandahar between 2004 and 2005," said a police official.

Khan has been kept in a separate cell in prison and he is under constant surveillance.

The police are also investigating whether Khan had any links with the dreaded Al Qaeda.

According to the police, Khan had planned to sneak into Bangladesh through the porous border in Purnia district.

Bihar's Purnia division, particularly Kishanganj district, shares its borders with Nepal and Bangladesh and reportedly has become a safe haven for terrorists in the last few months.

M I Khan in Patna