In a multi-State operation, Anti-Terrorism Squads from Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Special Cell of the Delhi Police and police teams from Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Bihar on Thursday busted ISIS Khorasan terror module by arresting four persons and detaining six others for allegedly plotting strikes in some parts of the country.
Acting on a tip-off from the Special Cell of the Delhi Police, nine teams from five States took into custody suspected terrorists and detained six others for questioning from Mumbra in Maharashtra, Jalandhar in Punjab, Bijnor and Muzaffarnagar both in Uttar Pradesh, Narkatiaganj in Bihar for allegedly conspiring to disturb peace across the country and create enmity between the two communities.
In a joint operation conducted in the early hours of Thursday, the ATS teams of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra carried out raids on the predominantly Muslim pocket of Mumbra in the adjoining Thane district and arrested a terror suspect Nazim Shamshad Ahmed (26) and detained two others.
Nazim hails from Bijnor. The two suspects, whom the two teams detained from Mumbra, were identified as Nazim Shaikh and Akram Ansari.
Informed ATS sources said that the three suspects — comprising arrested accused Nazim Ahmed and two other detained persons — were living in a single-room number 302 of the Rashid compound, Devri Pada, Ilka Akram building at Mumbra for the past few months.
Mufti Faizan and Tanveer were arrested from Bijnor district in Uttar Pradesh while Muzammil was arrested from Jalandhar district in Punjab.
Apart from cash, mobile phones and other things from them, the investigators have some documents linking them to ISIS.
Confirming the arrest of Nazim Ahmed and detention of two others from Mumbra, an ATS officer said in Mumbai: “The arrested person, along with other co-accused from different parts of the country, proposed to cause harm to national integrity and social harmony. All three were residing in a one-room apartment for the last few months. During the search, cash and mobile phones have seized”.
The investigations by various agencies have revealed that the arrested accused were in touch with each other over the internet in their effort to raise finances and organise strikes at places identified by them.
The UP ATS had launched the investigations in five States on the basis of some important documents it had seized in the wake of the March 7 encounter in lucknow in which a suspected terrorist belonging to the Khorasan module was killed.
Giving details of the arrests made in Thursday’s multi-State operation, Uttar Pradesh’s Additional Director General of Police (law and Order) Daljit Chaudhary said in lucknow, “All those arrested are in the age group of 18 to 25 and were living in different places like Mumbai, Jalandhar and UP. We have also found that they were definitely influenced by the material available on the internet”.
According to Chaudhary, the suspects were continuously communicating with each other about carrying out some major strike in the near future. “But police and other agencies of different states with the help of surveillance made the arrests before they could carry out any such attack,” he said.
The Uttar Pradesh police have, meanwhile, registered a case under 120-B (conspiracy), 121 (waging or attempting to wage a war or abetting waging a war against Government of India), 122 (collecting arms etc with intention to war against Government), 123 ( concealing intent to facilitate to wage war), 153 (Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot -if rioting be committed - if not committed).