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Day after Pak-linked terror module bust, 3 more held from UP
Meanwhile, officers in the know of the interrogation of the six suspects arrested on Tuesday said the RDX (rapid detonating explosive) that Delhi Police seized from one of them may have been pushed into India using a drone.
A day after Delhi Police’s Special Cell and Uttar Pradesh Anti-terrorism Squad arrested six terror suspects allegedly backed by Pakistan in a joint operation, UP ATS arrested three more men on Wednesday in connection with the case. UP Police said in a press statement that the three were stocking up explosives for terror strikes in the country and were also in touch with foreign agencies.
In a press statement, the UP Police identified the three as Mohammad Jameel of Unchahar, Rae Bareli; Mohammad Imtiaz of Maheshganj, Pratapgarh; and Mohammad Tahir alias Madni of Kareli, Prayagraj. Without giving details, they also claimed to have seized a large number of explosives and weapons from their possession.
Meanwhile, officers in the know of the interrogation of the six suspects arrested on Tuesday said the RDX (rapid detonating explosive) that Delhi Police seized from one of them may have been pushed into India using a drone.
The six men were arrested from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and were identified as Jaan Mohammad Shaikh (47), Osama alias Sami (22), Moolchand Srivastav alias Saaju (47), Zeeshan Qamar (28), Mohamed Abu Bakr (23), and Mohammed Amir Javed (31). Police had seized 1.7k RDX from Zeeshan’s house in Kareli, Allahabad, and a live improvised explosive device (IED) was found in Prayagraj and defused.
HT spoke with at least three officers privy to the investigation, who confirmed that Zeeshan claimed he was given the RDX by a man named Baidur. Police are on the lookout for Baidur, also a resident of Uttar Pradesh, who is currently absconding.
“Zeeshan was told by his handlers that Baidur would collect the RDX, which was dropped into India from Pakistan. It is unclear whether the border in Punjab or the line of control in Kashmir was used for it. It is also possible that they may have dropped more explosives in the past. We have just started interrogating Zeeshan and the other suspects,” said an officer, requesting anonymity.
He added that Zeeshan, who had recently started a date business in his hometown, was also trained by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI along with Delhi resident Osama, who lives with his family in Jamia Nagar’s Abul Fazal Enclave and also runs a business of importing dates. They met in Muscat in April from where they took the sea route and changed boats several times to reach Joini, a town near the Gwadar port in Pakistan. There they were trained for 15 days by three men, two of whom wore military uniforms.
On Tuesday, Delhi Police had said that the plot was to carry out terror strikes in Delhi, UP and Maharashtra during the festival season for which ISI had instructed Zeeshan and Osama to survey locations to plant IEDs.
Police had also said that Anees Ibrahim, brother of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, was connected to this module and was tasked to smuggle arms and ammunition into India.
“The operations of this module is similar to that of the Mumbai underworld in the 1993 Bombay serial blasts. In that case, Dawood was involved in getting RDX inside the country by sea through the coastal areas of Maharashtra. In this case, his brother Anees used contacts in ISI and may have smuggled explosives using drones,” added a second official, who asked not to be named.
A third officer, also requesting anonymity, echoed the second. “This module involves people associated with the Mumbai underworld. It looks like they were directly in touch with the ISI and planning the attacks here. So far, we have not come across any other terror group or militant organisation behind them. This is an entirely ISI-backed module for which they used the underworld,” he said, adding that Sameer alias Jaan Mohammed was part of Anees Ibrahim’s gang earlier.
