Two more persons have been taken into custody in connection to the alleged ISIS-style terrorist cell that was busted in raids last week. Teams of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) detained two scrap dealers from Amroha in Western Uttar Pradesh, about 140 km west of Delhi.
Teams of the NIA and UP ATS carried out raids for about two hours on the scrap dealers on Wednesday morning, a week after the sweeping raids that saw the arrest of 10 supsects and detentions of six more. The raids had covered 17 places spread out across Delhi and Western UP. It is unclear what role these scrap dealers may have played in the alleged terrorist operation.
Wednesday’s raids follow searches carried out in Saidapura village near Amroha on Tuesday. Amroha has been dead centre of the raids since it is the hometown of 29-year-old Suhail, the alleged mastermind of the terror cell.
A Delhi court had given the NIA custody of the 10 suspects for further interrogations. Officials have said the ISIS-style terror cell, which had named itself Harkat-ul Harb-e-Islam, which loosely translates to ‘war for the cause of Islam’. The suspects revealed during interrogation that they planned to leave the flag of ISIS at all the attack sites in a bid to spread a sense of terror across the country.
The NIA has said it has identified the handler of the terrorist cell as Abu Malik Peshwani, who it said could be Pakistani. It said it is also looking into whether the Pakistani terrorist-intelligence nexus was using the terrorist cell to carry out attacks in India under the guise of the ISIS terror group, which has in fact receded to a great extent since its peak.
Another key area of investigation, NIA officials told Zee Media, was the route through which the suspects acquired the weapons. "The seized items include 25 kg of explosive material, such as potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate, sulfur, sugar material paste, 12 pistols, 150 rounds of live ammunition, one country- made rocket launcher, 112 alarm clocks, mobile phone circuits, batteries, 51 pipes, remote control car triggering switch, wireless digital doorbell for remote switch, steel containers, electric wires, 91 mobile phones, 134 SIM cards, three laptops, knife, sword, ISIS-related literature and cash amount of Rs 7.5 lakh approximately," NIA had said in the statement.
