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The Ahmedabad Crime Branch has arrested Mohammad Taslim, alias Mohammad Umar Sheikh, a convicted gangster associated with the notorious Abdul Latif gang, who had been absconding since jumping parole in 2019, police said on Sunday.
According to the Crime Branch, Taslim, who is serving a life sentence in the 1992 Radhika Gymkhana mass murder case and the murder of former Rajya Sabha member Rauf Valiullah, was apprehended after a coordinated operation based on specific human intelligence and field inputs. Police said Taslim had fled while on temporary parole in 2019 and had since been evading arrest by frequently changing his identity, locations and means of communication across multiple states. Acting on fresh intelligence, Crime Branch officials tracked his whereabouts to Rajasthan and arrested him during a tactical operation. The release stated that he was apprehended during a coordinated tactical operation and has been taken into custody. Legal procedures are underway to return him back to Sabarmati Central Jail. Taslim was one of the most ruthless and trusted sharpshooters operating under the command of the late underworld don Abdul Latif during the height of the gang wars in the 1990s. His notable criminal convictions include: The 1992 Radhika Gymkhana massacre took place on August 3, 1992, when Taslim was part of a heavily armed hit squad that stormed the Radhika Gymkhana Club in the Odhav area of Ahmedabad. The assailants opened indiscriminate fire using automatic weapons and AK-47 rifles in an attempt to eliminate rival bootlegger Hansraj Trivedi. During the attack, the gang killed nine people. The incident is also noted as the first recorded use of an AK-47 in a gang war in Gujarat. He was also convicted in the assassination of ex-MP Rauf Valiullah: In October 1992, Taslim and his associates assassinated former Rajya Sabha member and Congress leader Rauf Valiullah in broad daylight because Valiullah was actively working to expose the Latif gang's involvement in the gymkhana bloodbath. (ANI)
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