The five persons who were arrested on the outskirts of Hyderabad in connection with the murder of former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya had links with an Inter-Services Intelligence-sponsored outfit called the 'Muslim Defence Force', according to Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police Pervaram Ramulu.

In a statement on Saturday, the DGP said that the aim of the MDF was to create tension in the country by eliminating important leaders.

The main accused in the murder case, Asghar Ali, was trained in Pakistan for 50 days, he said.

Another eight to 10 members of the MDF have been identified in Hyderabad, he said.

The DGP said the five were taken to Pakistan via Kolkata and Bangkok.

Meanwhile, the City Police Task Force on Saturday announced the arrest of another person, Zubair Sharif (27). He was picked up from his residence at Kurmaguda in the Old City on Friday. The police also seized his passport.

In a statement, Additional City Police Commissioner A K Khan said Zubair was one of the six members of an ISI-sponsored module in Hyderabad. At the behest of ISI operative M A Rauf, they visited Pakistan for training in weapons handling and manufacture of improvised explosive devices.

Rauf showed them a video compact disc of the riots in Gujarat and instigated them. After obtaining their passports, the youth proceeded to Kolkata and boarded a flight to Bangkok on November 11, 2002. Two ISI agents Iqbal and Sohail, received them at the Bangkok airport. Later, they were taken to Karachi and Islamabad.

From Islamabad, they were taken to a forest surrounded by hillocks where a training camp was held for a month. They were asked to create disturbances in India 'to avenge the atrocities committed by Hindus in Gujarat'. Other volunteers at the camp offered to participate in creating disturbances in Chechnya or Palestine.

On their return from Pakistan, they were asked to stay put in Bangkok on the ground that the situation in Hyderabad was not conducive in the wake of the bomb blast at the Sai Baba temple in Dilsukhnagar. However, they went to Kolkata in January 2003. The passports of the ISI trainees were tampered with in Bangkok to conceal their visit to Pakistan.

All of them finally returned to Hyderabad and met Rauf at a hotel. Rauf advised them to act as 'sleepers' for three or four months after which they would be assigned an important task. At this point, Zubair developed cold feet and decided to back out. Consequently, other team members suspected Zubair of his loyalty towards the cause. Then Zubair was mentally tortured. The other members were waiting for instructions from Rauf to carry out terrorist attacks.