IEDs, flag recovered from ISIS suspect’s house in UP: Police

The special cell of Delhi police, on Sunday, recovered a large quantity of explosives and an ISIS flag from the house of a suspected ISIS operative in Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh.

The ISIS operative, Mohammad Mustakim Khan, armed with two pressure cooker IEDs, was arrested from Central Delhi’s Ridge Road area on Friday night following a brief exchange of fire.

The police team took him to his Badhiyaa Bhaisaahi village in Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur district.

According to DCP (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwaha, one brown jacket containing three explosive packets and another blue check jacket containing four explosive packets were recovered from his house.

“Each explosive packet, removed from jackets, was wrapped with transparent tape which contained explosive and cardboard sheet pasted with ball bearings and electric wires were coming outside from it,” said the DCP.

“One ISIS flag, one leather belt containing around three kilogram explosive, eight to nine kilogram explosive in four different polythenes, three cylindrical metal boxes containing explosive and electric wires wrapped with transparent tape, and two cylindrical metal boxes in which ball bearings were pasted were recovered from his house,” the DCP said.

“Among other materials recovered from his house were one wooden broken box (for target practice), 30 ball bearings of different diameters, one packet containing 12 small boxes of ball bearings, three lithium batteries — two of 4V and one of 9V, two cylindrical metal boxes, and one yellow ampere meter,” the DCP said.

“Two iron blades attached parallel to each other and connected to electric wires from the sides, one wire cutter, two mobile chargers, a table alarm clock attached with electric wires, and one black tape were also recovered from his house,” said the DCP.

Khan (36) had planned to carry out a “lone wolf” strike at a heavy footfall area in the national capital.

Security was stepped up in the national capital and in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh following the arrest.

He planned to strike in the national capital on August 15, but could not do so due to heavy security arrangements.