Suspected IS man, who planned attack in Delhi, arrested
Was set to carry out IED blasts in a high footfall area, say police; two pressure cooker IEDS, ammo recovered
NEWDELHI: The Delhi Police on Saturday said they have arrested a 36-year-old suspected operative of the Islamic State. Police said he had planned a “lone wolf” terror strike in a high footfall area in the city “using a high-intensity pressure cooker-based improvised explosive device (IED)”.
Police did not specify the “high-footfall area” that the man was to target, but said he hailed from a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur, and was set to carry out the IED blasts.
Police said they received information that the alleged operative, Mohammed Mushtaqeem Khan, would pass by Dhaula Kuan area on Friday. Officers of the special cell said around 11pm, the man was intercepted and caught after a shoot-out in the Ridge area between Dhaula Kuan and Karol Bagh. Police said they recovered two pressure cooker IEDS weighing around 15kg, a.30 bore pistol and four cartridges that Khan was carrying in a bag. Khan was on a white TVS Apache motorcycle at the time of his arrest.
“Five shots were exchanged, including three fired on the raiding party by Khan. Nobody was injured,” deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Pramod Kushwah said.
On Saturday morning, around a dozen National Security Guard (NSG) officers carried out a “controlled blast” to dispose of the IEDS, for which they created a pit inside Buddha Jayanti Park and cordoned off the entire area as a safety measure.
The IEDS were ready for use and only timers needed to be installed to carry out explosions, Kushwah said.
In a press statement, police said Khan’s interrogation has revealed that his original plan was to carry out the IED blasts during the Independence Day celebrations on August 15.
“However, because of the heavy security arrangements, Khan could not enter the city and had to drop the terror strike plan, Kushwah said.
During a press briefing, the DCP said Khan planned the blasts on the directions of his handler, a commander of the ISKP (Islamic State of Khorasan Province) in Afghanistan, which is a banned terrorist organisation and is a part of IS. The officer did not disclose the handler’s name, saying it would hamper their probe.
Khan was in touch with the commander through social media, they said. “Khan told us that he was more inclined to “fidayeen (suicide) attack”. But his handler had told him that after successfully executing the IEDS blasts, he would be getting fresh instructions to carry out a fidayeen attack.
He claims that he has already prepared “an explosive belt” for the fidayeen attack. We are trying to recover it,” Kushwah said. Khan told the police he learnt to make “IEDS and suicide belt” through videos on social media. He was sent to eight-day police custody by a Delhi court. A Class 9 drop-out, Khan runs a cosmetics shop at Balrampur, where his wife and four children also live.