Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 14: On the eve of the 76th Independence Day celebrations, the Punjab Police jointly with the Delhi police on Sunday busted a terror module backed by Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), while the Rajasthan police arrested two persons alleged to be spying for Pakistan and the Uttar Pradesh police picked up a young man having links with Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).
Considering that heightened terror activities to spoil India’s Independence Day celebrations was expected, the Punjab police, especially in the districts bordering the international border with Pakistan has been put on an alert ahead of Independence Day celebrations.
The Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said police foiled a major terror threat and busted Pak-ISI backed terror module with help of Delhi Police. “Four module members associated with Canada-based Arsh Dalla and Australia-based Gurjant Singh have been arrested. Three hand-grenades (P-86), 1 IED and 2 – 9mm pistols along with 40 live cartridges have been recovered,” said the DGP.
In Kanpur, the UP police arrested a 19-year-old JeM activist in touch with handlers in Pakistan and Afghanistan through social media, officials said. The arrest of Habibul Islam alias Saifulla by the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) came close on the heels of the arrest of Mohammad Nadeem (25), an alleged terrorist linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) who was tasked with carrying out a ‘fidayeen’ attack on suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
“Following Nadeem’s interrogation Saifulla was brought from Fatehpur to Kanpur. He was later arrested. Saifulla admitted that he knew Nadeem and both of them were linked to JeM,” the UP ATS said in a statement on Sunday. Indian and international links of Saifulla are being probed and he has been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Additional Director General of Police (ATS) Naveen Arora said.
According to the police, Saifulla, who was residing in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur district, is a native of Bihar’s Motihari district. “Saifulla is an expert in making virtual IDs and he has provided around 50 of those to Nadeem as well as terrorists in Pakistan and in Afghanistan. He was linked to handlers in Pakistan and Afghanistan through various social media platforms like Telegram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger,” the ATS said.
Saifulla was linked to various groups on social media which used to share “jihadi videos”, the police alleged, adding he used to “send jihadi videos to people to motivate them.” The ATS has also alleged that a Pakistani handler of the JeM had asked Saifulla to come to Pakistan for “jihadi training” and then “carry out jihad in India.” A mobile phone, a SIM card and a knife have been seized from him, the ATS said.
In Rajasthan based on the inputs from the central intelligence agencies, the police arrested two people in the Bhilwara and Pali districts for allegedly spying for the ISI. The accused have been identified as 27-year-old Narayan Lal Gadri and 24-year-old Kuldeep Singh Shekhawat and it is alleged that they were in touch with ISI through social media.
On Thursday, Rajasthan Police asked Narayan Lal Gadri to appear for questioning in Jaipur. He revealed that earlier this year, he had joined a pornographic WhatsApp group by accepting the joining link shared by someone on Facebook, a central investigation agency source said. The WhatsApp group had more than 250 members using mobile numbers belonging to multiple countries, including Pakistan. Narayan Lal had claimed to have left the group within a week of joining it, sources said.
Immediately upon leaving the group, he was contacted on WhatsApp by a member who used a “+92” number asking him for his reason for leaving. The WhatsApp user with a Pakistani number introduced himself as “Anil”. Subsequently, Narayan Lal got to know that he is from Pakistan. He still continued his communication with “Anil”, sources said.
Slowly the two started exchanging messages on WhatsApp and speaking on WhatsApp audio calls. After some days, “Anil” had introduced Narayan Lal to another Pakistani Intelligence Operative (PIO), “Sahil” who also was using an Indian WhatsApp No and claimed to be in Delhi, they said.
The PIOs encouraged Narayan Lal to plan a trip to Pakistan and promised to sponsor the trip fully and facilitated his documentation process. They also promised to host him well in Pakistan. To initiate his passport and visa, Narayan Lal shared photos of his Adhaar Card, Diving Licence, and PAN card, along with passport photos with the PIOs.
The two PIOs “Anil” and “Sahil” insisted Narayan Lal provide some Indian SIM Cards in exchange for money. Narayan Lal agreed and procured two SIM Cards in his name. He used one of them to receive a WhatsApp OTP on behalf of “Anil”, hence facilitating the latter in acquiring a new WhatsApp account, this time on an Indian number. Then Narayan Lal sent the SIM Cards to the PIOs at the desired address. Similarly, he had sent three more Indian SIM Cards (hence five in total) to the PIOs, for this the PIOs had paid him ₹ 5,000.
The PIOs had asked him on multiple occasions to enter military cantonments, befriend Army personnel, introduce them to the PIOs and also send locations, photos and videos of military places. Narayan Lal had accepted to have sent photos of a random military vehicle in Udaipur and random Army personnel in uniform at Ahmedabad. He also accepted to have sent a few photos of the Ahmedabad railway station.
After the tragic killing of the tailor Kanhaiya Lal by two men in Udaipur, the PIOs had asked Narayan Lal to look for the video of the same. Narayan Lal obliged the PIOs with one such video that he had received in one of his WhatsApp groups, agency sources said.
Apart from these, the PIOs had also tasked Narayan Lal to look for a shopping space adjacent to the Udaipur cantonment, so that he can set up a photocopier stall there. For this work, they had sent ₹ 2,000 to ₹ 3,000 to Narayan Lal. They also promised to provide four-five lakh Indian rupees to set up the shop and bear expenses towards the salary of a photocopy-machine operator. In return, they wanted copies of all military documents that would come to the shop for photocopy. Sources said Narayan Lal accepted to have visited the area adjacent to Udaipur cantonment, carried out the survey, shortlist a shop, share contact details of the shop-owner with the PIOs and make him even talk to one of the two PIOs. He had also accepted to have shared the Google Maps current location of the identified shop with the PIOs.
He was arrested by the Rajasthan Police before he could send more SIM Cards or photos, videos, or locations of military personnel, vehicles, or installations or procure a photocopier stall near Udaipur. Huge damage to the security and defence organisations has been averted by this arrest, sources said.
Narayan Lal will reportedly soon be produced before a court under sections of the Official Secrets Act 1923 and provisions of the Indian Penal Code. More leads are also being investigated. Rajasthan Crime Investigation Department (CID-Intelligence) was monitoring the activities of these two accused after receiving information about them.
The second accused, Kuldeep Singh Shekhawat, set up social media accounts in the name of a fake woman and fake army personnel. After befriending Indian soldiers through these accounts, he was receiving confidential information related to the Army. After that, he used to provide it to a woman who was a Pakistani handling officer, Director General of Police (Intelligence) Umesh Mishra said.