The Delhi Police Special Cell has arrested three individuals on Monday, suspected to be associated with a Pakistan-ISI-sponsored terror module. Authorities assert that this module had reached an “advanced stage in planning potential terrorist attacks within India”, utilising specially crafted Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), which were reportedly tested in forest areas over an extended period.
The individuals in custody have been identified as Shahnawaz Alam (31), a resident of Hazaribagh in Jharkhand; Mohammad Rizwan Ashraf (28) hailing from Lucknow; and Mohammad Arshad Warsi, originally from Garhwa district in Jharkhand but presently residing in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar, reported The Indian Express.
Rizwan Ashraf was arrested in Lucknow, Shahnawaz in Jaitpur, and Warsi in Moradabad. Notably, the police recovered various items from Shahnawaz’s possession, including iron pipes, chemicals, time devices, and pistol cartridges, all intended for the production of explosives.
According to officers, the three detainees pledged allegiance to ISIS, and their handlers in Pakistan maintained links to both ISIS and Pakistan’s ISI. This secret association allowed ISIS to operate discreetly, evading scrutiny by international agencies, with Pakistan’s ISI controlling the actions of these three individuals.
HGS Dhaliwal, Special CP of the Special Cell, stated that the suspects were presented before a local court and subsequently placed into seven-day police custody.
Police further revealed that the men were “heavily religiously indoctrinated” with extremist beliefs.
“The accused are involved in several terror attack cases across the country and were being controlled by cross-border handlers from Pakistan. Early interrogation has so far revealed that they had influence in Western and Southern India, where they had carried out an extensive recon. They had also tried to set up base in the Western Ghats and carried out an elaborate recce at Gujarat,” reported the Special CP.
Also Read: Five men suspected of planning terror attack arrested in Bengaluru, ex-CM Bommai demands NIA probe
Officers emphasised that the accused meticulously planned the local procurement of weapons to divert blame away from cross-border elements.
“All three had a scientific bent of mind which helped them test bombs in forest areas to ensure success during final execution,” Dhaliwal added.
The police investigation revealed that Shahnawaz had arrived in Delhi in November 2016 to prepare for the SSC exam, residing in Abul Fazal Enclave. During this period, he allegedly attended lectures by the Radical Islamic group Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Shaheen Bagh and became “influenced by ISIS ideology.”
In 2016, Shahnawaz crossed paths with Rizwan, and they formed a close friendship. “Rizwan was also inclined to the ISIS. Shahnawaz was arrested in Hazaribagh in multiple cases of dacoity and theft in 2019 and remained in jail for 8-9 months,” Dhaliwal noted. He was granted bail in 2020.
Subsequently, Shahnawaz and Rizwan established communication with a foreign-based ISIS handler, conducting surveys in various places, including Lavasa, Mahabaleshwar, Goa, and Hubli, in search of suitable hideouts within the Western Ghats for their base of operations. Shahnawaz also conducted extensive observation of crowded locations, religious shrines, and routes taken by VIP leaders in Mumbai, Surat, and Vadodara, with the intention of planting IEDs to cause maximum casualties.
“Since December 2022, on the instructions of his foreign-based handler, Shahnawaz, Rizwan along with their other associates had started accumulating material for IEDs in Delhi… in furtherance of their conspiracy to carry out blasts,” Dhaliwal added.
Arshad Warsi, hailing from a middle-class family in Jharkhand, is an alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University with a B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering. He later pursued an MBA in Marketing and Operations at Jamia Millia Islamia in 2018. Presently, Warsi is pursuing a PhD at Jamia on the subject of Islamic Principles in Management. The police revealed that Warsi also worked as a Physics teacher at an institute in Jamia Nagar and provided private tuition.
Rizwan Ashraf was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and his father held a clerical position in a shipping company. He completed his BTech in IT from a Ghaziabad college in 2017, subsequently returning to Prayagraj and getting married. Dhaliwal confirmed, “Ashraf is a member of ISIS and is in communication with the same handler as that of Shahnawaz and Rizwan.”