Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 20: The arrest in Delhi of an alleged terrorist Aftab Qureshi has led to the cracking of terrorist cell believed to be involved in making bombs and recruitment with plans to target senior leaders from the ruling BJP, official sources said on Saturday.
In a joint operation, Delhi Police’s Special Cell, Jharkhand Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and Ranchi police have arrested two suspected ISIS operatives.
Sources said interrogation of Qureshi led to the arrest of Ashhar Danish from a dinghy room from one Tabrak Lodge in Islamnagar area in Ranchi. The young man Danish portrayed himself as a student ‘studying’ for the competitive SSC exam for appointment to government jobs, but was, in fact, making bombs for the dreaded ISIS terror group and was also recruiting people to achieve its goal of attacking BJP leaders.
Buried in a non-descript corner of Ranchi, Tabrak Lodge is masquerading as a ‘hotel’ but in reality it is only a dingy and dilapidated structure that lets out tiny, cramped rooms. It has a long, narrow, and dimly-lit corridor, a yawning blackness at the other end. On either side there are cheap plywood doors in which from room number 15, a particularly filthy black grime, was Danish picked up by the police.
Arrest of Aftab Qureshi led to raids in other states. Eventually, based on information supplied by Aftab and found on these raids, cops from the national capital and Jharkhand’s Anti-Terrorism Squad conducted a joint op to track down and arrest Danish and a dozen others.
Sources said gunpowder and bombs, as well as large quantities of potassium nitrate, and homemade weapons were recovered from Danish’s room. The explosives were made in this room and then tested by detonating them in the waters of the Subarnarekha River.
Potassium nitrate, also called saltpeter, is a chemical compound also found in fertilisers and used to make gunpowder. A white crystalline powder, it can be harmful if inhaled or ingested. Explosives of various size and intensity were recovered from the room, sources said.
Sources said room number 15 was not just a bomb factory. It was also a recruitment centre. Danish, who moved in sometime last year, himself had been recruited and radicalised by a Pakistani handler operating through social media, after which he too began drafting people.
Much of this recruitment and radicalisation, sources said, was done through the Signal messaging app, one of several that offers end-to-end encryption. Multiple groups were created with mundane names like ‘intern interview’ or ‘business idea’, to mask what was going on.
These and other groups were also used to raise funds that were used to buy bomb-making materials; knives and chemicals were ordered from Amazon and Danish’s Pakistani handler taught him how to make the explosives, including pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) bombs. These and other bombs, including those with acetone peroxide – grimly called ‘mother of Satan’ – as the primary ingredient, were made here, tested, and stockpiled. Weapons were found too.
The other members of this module have been identified as Sufian Khan, Mohammad Huzaif Yaman, and Kamran Qureshi, whom reportedly had plans to attack religious sites.
