IS module case: NIA arrests arms supplier in Meerut

MEERUT: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested a man Thursday for allegedly supplying arms to the Harkat-ul-harb-e-islam, an Islamic State-inspired terror module, 10 members of which were arrested last month in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh .

The man identified as Naeem, 21, was arrested by the agency from a farm house in UP’S Kithore town on the basis of information it received from arrested members of the group, according to Prem Chand Sharma, inspector at the Kithore police station. The NIA later took him to Delhi for interrogation. A senior NIA official in Delhi said Naeem was engaged in supplying weapons to members of the Harkat-ul-harbe-islam, which the agency busted in December with the arrest of 10 people who had allegedly been planning to attack some political personalities, security establishments and crowded place in Delhi and National Capital Region. The official didn’t want to be named.

The agency seized a countrymade rocket launcher, 12 pistols, 112 alarm clocks, 100 mobile phones, 135 SIM cards, several laptops and various electronic gadgets besides 150 rounds of ammunition during raids it conducted on the suspects’ premises. NIA also seized 25 kg of explosive material, such as potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate and sulphur, and ~7.5 lakh in cash. Superintendent of police (rural) Rajesh Kumar said Naeem supplied pistols to members of the Harkat-ul-harb-e-islam. The NIA team raided a house where Naeem was after receiving inputs from arrested members of the group that he supplied pistols to a man identified as Mufti Saqib.