Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) took two of the arrested alleged terrorists to Gwadar port, through sea routes, and then to Sindh to get them trained in making bombs, the Delhi Police’s Special Cell found on Wednesday during the interrogation of the six terror suspects nabbed on Tuesday.
The Special Cell sleuths are now investigating how the two went to Pakistan, got trained, and returned to Bharat.
Its probe has found that the two suspected terrorists — Osama, resident of Delhi’s Jamia Nagar, and Zeeshan Qamar, resident of UP’s Prayagraj — were imparted the training of making bombs and IEDs and committing arson with the help of items of daily use. They were also trained in handling and use of small firearms and AK-47s.
During the interrogation, it was revealed that Osama left for Muscat in April where he met Zeeshan who had also come from Bharat for training in Pakistan.
They were joined by 15-16 Bengali-speaking people, suspected to be Bangladeshi nationals. They were divided into sub-groups and Zeeshan and Osama were placed in one group.
Over the next few days, after several short sea journeys, changing boats several times, they were taken to Jioni near Gwadar. There they were received by one Pakistani who took them to a farmhouse in Thatta in Sindh province.
There were three Pakistani nationals in the farmhouse. Two of these, Jabbar and Hamza imparted training to them. Both of them were from Pakistan Army as they wore military uniforms, according to the information obtained.
The training lasted for almost 15 days and thereafter, they were taken back to Muscat via the same route.
Earlier in the day, a Delhi court sent the six terrorists to 14 days police custody.
Apart from Osama and Zeeshan, the other four arrested accused terrorists have been identified as Jaan Mohammad Shaikh, resident of Mumbai, Moolchand, resident of UP’s Rae Bareli, Mohd Abu Bakr, resident of UP’s Bahraich and Mohd Amir Javed, resident of Lucknow.
The arrested persons were tasked separately to execute different aspects of the terror plan.
After the Delhi Police’s Special Cell got a tip-off from central intelligence agencies about the conspiracy being hatched to carry out terror attacks in different parts of the country, it carried out a multi-pronged operation wherein several teams were stationed at Mumbai and Lucknow, Prayagraj, Rae Bareli, and Pratapgarh in UP simultaneously.
On September 14, on the basis of intelligence gathered through human as well as technical nodes, simultaneous raids were conducted in different states. Initially, underworld operative Sheikh was apprehended from near Rajasthan’s Kota while he was on his way to Delhi, Osama was apprehended from Delhi’s Okhla and Abu Bakr from Sarai Kale Khan, Zeeshan was apprehended from Prayagraj, Javed from Lucknow, and Moolchand from Rae Bareli. The operation in UP was done in close and successful coordination with officers of UP ATS.
Interrogation has revealed that this module had received sophisticated RDX-based IEDs, grenades, pistols and cartridges from a sleeper cell operative and these were sent to UP for safe concealment. A search is on for sleeper cell operatives who are still at large.
The probe also found that Sheikh, along with Moolchand, were tasked by Pakistan-based Anees Ibrahim, the brother of Dawood Ibrahim, to receive the weapons in Delhi, and hand them over to other terror operatives in Delhi and Mumbai and other parts of the country.
Subsequently, further deliveries of similar consignments of IEDs were to be done through the same channel.
The underworld component acting at the behest of the ISI was entrusted with two tasks that are the transportation of arms and explosives, and terror funding through Hawala channels.
The ISI trained terror component was tasked with reconnaissance of targets and planting of the IEDs.
Further nodes of this network are being identified, police said.
(The story has been published via a syndicated feed with minor edits to conform to Hindu-Post style-guide.)
