Patna/Darbhanga, Nov. 25: A Delhi police team nabbed two suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives from Madhubani district on the India-Nepal border last evening for their alleged involvement in a fake passport racket.

The arrested suspects, identified as Ghayur Jamil, 30, and Mohammad Azmal, alias Shohaib, were produced in the court of chief judicial magistrate of Madhubani A.K. Gupta and subsequently taken to Delhi on transit remand.

Sources said a three-member team of Delhi police’s special cell, headed by assistant commissioner of police Sanjeet Yadav, visited Madhubani’s Sakri Chowk and took Azmal into custody.

The team later carried out a raid at Simaria Chowk under Kotwali police station and arrested Jamil.

The members of the visiting team were taken aback when Jamil signed the papers in Arabic, a language not commonly used in rural Bihar. The team raided a house near Millat College under Laheriasarai police station in Darbhanga district but nobody was arrested from there.

Inspector-general (Darbhanga zone) R.K. Mishra said the two were suspected to be involved in indiscriminate firing near Jama Masjid in Delhi and Krishna Swami Stadium in Bangalore.

“One of the two arrested persons is wanted in a case lodged with Lodinagar police station in Delhi in connection with issuance of a fake passport,” he added.

Deputy inspector-general (Darbhanga range) Sudhanshu Kumar confirmed the arrest but refused to divulge details.

“The Delhi police team had sought our help and we co-operated with the members of the visiting team,” he said. Sudhanshu, however, ruled out the possibility of any link of the arrested persons with any terrorist organisation.

Sources said the arrested persons were brought to Patna from Madhubani under tight security arrangements and then taken to Delhi by an evening flight.

Director-general of police Abhayanand said the Bihar police had received requisition for assistance from their Delhi counterparts. “We provided them assistance that they had requisitioned for,” he said.

This is not the first time when a police team from outside has visited Madhubani. A Nepal-based Lashkar operative, Mohammad Omar Madni, also a resident of Madhubani, was arrested by a Delhi police team in 2009.

Two other suspects, identified as Kamaluddin, alias Kamal Ahamad Ansari, and Khalid Sheikh, suspected to be Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives, were arrested from Madhubani’s Basobpatti area in July 2006. The two suspects’ names had figured in the Mumbai train blast case. Kamal was assigned to recruit youths for the banned outfit and send them to Pakistan for training.