Mystery Afghan checks out 5 hotels in 6 days, goes missing

Suspect had stayed in five-star hotels, spent lavishly; was questioned by the cops and is now at large

The Delhi police and intelligence agencies are wringing their hands in frustration after letting slip through their fingers a mysterious man from Afghanistan, who could be on a terror recee to India.

Twenty-five-year old Khirullah Nawabi, son of Kahlil Rahman Nawabi, from Kandahar in Afghanistan, arrived in Delhi on December 18. He hired a call girl to pose as his wife and over the next six days, surveyed Delhi's important markets and monuments, and stayed at four five-star hotels, spending lavishly.

A taxi driver reported his activities to the cops and Nawabi was called in for questioning. Failing to find anything suspicious in his behaviour, the police let him walk free. Within minutes, he disappeared.

Today, the only thing the cops know about his movements is that he is hiding somewhere in Goa. What adds to their problem is that Nawabi had failed to mention during the police questioning that he had lived in Pakistan for many months in 2007.

An alert has been sounded for Nawabi.

"He checked into five hotels but did not stay in anyone of them for more than a day or two. According to the taxi drivers who had driven him around, he behaved in a very suspicious manner while visiting important locations in the city. In the backdrop of the terror attacks on Mumbai's hotels, his actions seem suspicious," said a senior official from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), on condition of anonymity.

Travelling on a diplomatic visa issued in Kandahar, Nawabi landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on December 18. On the same day, he checked into Hotel Ashok at Chanakyapuri. The next day, he shifted to the Lalit (earlier known as Hotel InterContinental) at Connaught Place and moved into the nearby Shangri-La hotel the very next day.

On December 21, he checked into the three-star Qabli Hotel at Nizamuddin in south Delhi, which is very popular with visiting Afghanis, and stayed there for two days.

Finally, he moved to Hyatt Regency hotel in south Delhi where he stayed till December 24. Finding his movements suspicious, an alert taxi driver who had driven Nawabi around the city, called up the Delhi Police Control Room to report his activities.

"On December 24, Nawabi was taken to the Foreigner's Regional Registration Office (FRRO) for questioning. But he was allowed to go as nothing about him seemed suspicious enough to warrant an arrest. However, within minutes of walking out of the FRRO building in the busy office area of Bikaji Cama Place, he became untraceable. He seemed to have vanished into thin air. Later on, investigations revealed that he had gone to Goa via Agra," said a Delhi police officer, wishing not to be named.

Soon after his disappearance, cops and intelligence agencies started to gather more details about him.

During his questioning, Nawabi had informed that he was a civil engineer and was working as executive director with Human Employment for Long Term Profession for Afghanistan, a body allegedly involved in rehabilitating Afghani youth.

"But he did not inform us that he was in Pakistan for seven months in 2007 before going to the United Arab Emirates for three months. Before coming to India he visited Pakistan again. It seems he was on some kind of a recee here," said the MHA officer.

Cops have detained the call girl hired by Nawabi. Sources revealed that he specifically asked for a girl who looked like a foreigner. "He hired the call girl to deceive people. He was spending lavishly and seemed to have very expensive habits," added the officer.

MHA officials are in constant touch with their counterpart in Agra and Goa to trace Nawabi. But so far they have received no information. "He has not flown out of the country. May be he is in some other city," said the officer.