Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELH, Oct 2: In a rich haul, the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police on Monday arrested three suspected Indian terrorists who were on the National Investigation Agency’s radar and carrying a reward of Rs three lakhs for any information on their whereabouts.
The police said all the three terror suspects arrested in the crackdown were believed to be connected with the ISIS. All the three were engineers by profession and one of them a PhD. All the three have expertise in making bombs, police have said.
HGS Dhaliwal, senior officer in Delhi Police Special Cell, said one of the three terror suspects arrested was Mohammad Shahnawaz, who was on the most wanted list of the NIA which last month announced a cash award of ₹ 3 lakh each for information about Shahnawaz and two others, who allegedly played key roles in blasts in different parts of the country.
The other two arrested are Shahnawaz’s associates Mohammed Rizwan Ashraf and Mohammed Arshad Warsi, Mr Dhaliwal said. While Shahnawaz was arrested from Delhi’s Jaitpur, Rizwan and Ashraf were caught from Lucknow and Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, respectively.
Police said they have recovered a pistol, items used in bomb-making, chemicals and Jihadi literature from Pakistan at Shahnawaz’s Delhi hideout. The three suspects, Mr Dhaliwal said, had conducted recce in different parts of the country and tested bombs.
They would stay in touch with their ISIS handler and shared reports on a regular basis. They had been instructed to procure all items they need locally so that external role in their work was not exposed, police said.
Shahnawaz, police said, was from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand. A mining engineer by education, he had knowledge of engineering blasts. His wife was a Hindu by birth but had converted to Islam before they married. She is on the run now.
Mohammed Arshad Warsi, police said, was also from Jharkhand. He had completed a BTech in Mechanical Engineering from Aligarh University and had been pursuing a doctorate from Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. Mohammed Rizwan Ashraf holds a BTech in computer science. Originally from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, he had trained as a cleric too.
Mr Dhaliwal said the ongoing crackdown has exposed the pan-India module of ISIS. “Their aim was to target well-know people and inflict maximum casualties,” he said, adding that they have also uncovered the funding trail behind such activities.
Shahnawaz had escaped from the custody of the Pune Police and was living in Delhi, they said. He carried a reward of ₹3 lakh. An engineer by profession, Shahnawaz was arrested October 1 night from an area in southeast Delhi by the Delhi Police’s Special Cell and is currently being interrogated, an official said. Four to five people, connected to the module and detained in the matter, are also being interrogated, the person said.
Shahnawaz was found to have some chemical substance on him, which was seized, the official said. Police have also recovered other incriminating material suspected to be used for improvised explosive device (IED) fabrication, he said.
The Delhi Police Special Cell had eyes on Shahnawaz Alam for involvement in various bomb blasts, for a long time, Dhaliwal said. “Special Cell for a long time has been keeping an eye on the Indian Mujahideen & ISIS kingpin,” said Dhaliwal, addressing a presser hours after Shahnawaz’s arrest.
“When their hideouts were raided different equipment to make explosives were recovered…Pistol, cartridges & various literature to make bombs were recovered,” Mr Dhaliwal said.