Ex-Taliban leader among Pak names in terror plot
NEW DELHI: A former top Taliban commander radicalised and motivated two Delhi men who were arrested last year for allegedly plotting serial bomb blasts in Delhi and other states, according to the charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police in a city court.
The two men, Zeeshan Qamar (28) and Osama (22), were arrested along with five others in separate but coordinated operations by anti-terror units of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra police forces in September last year.
HT has learnt that the police attached the two men’s confession report in which they allegedly claim to have been radicalised by Syed Mazar Shah -- a former Taliban commander who subsequently tried to contest assembly elections from Pakistan-occupiedKashmir (PoK) -- and they even met him during training arranged by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Pakistan’s Thatta area.
Police also attached a picture of Mazhar Shah and a news article from August 2021, when former
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan nominated Shah for a reserved seat in the legislative assembly of PoK.
The charge sheet also has photos of Jahangir Khan Marri, who headed the training camp in Pakistan, and Hamza, a major in the Pakistan Army. According to the charge sheet, Hamza allegedly told Zeeshan and Osama that he was present when the Pakistan Army arrested wing commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was captured at the Pakistan border during Balakot airstrike by the Indian Air Force in February 2019.
The chargesheet, filed in a Delhi court on February 9, indicates that the alleged plan to conduct terror attacks through the accused may have been coordinated by the former Taliban leader and his aides in ISI.
The police’s submission to the court on February 9 claims Shah, who is currently residing in Karachi, had allegedly met the two men and told them he had earlier “worked with the Taliban and Jaish-e-Mohammed”. “Syed Mazhar Shah motivated both the accused persons by preaching verses of Holy Quran during their training,” police said in the chargesheet.
On September 14 last year, Delhi Police said they averted terror attacks in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh after the arrest of six suspects -Jaan Mohammad Shaikh (47), Osama alias Sami, Moolchand alias Saaju (47), Zeeshan, Mohamed Abu Bakr (23), and Mohammed Amir Javed (31). The following day, Osama’s uncle, Humaidur Rehman (47), was also arrested. Of the seven arrested persons, police alleged that Zeeshan and Osama trained in Pakistan in a remote area near the city of Thatta.
The charge sheet includes the geographical coordinates of a farmhouse in Thatta where they were allegedly trained and also mentions the location of Café Imran on NH5, Gharo, Thatta, from where the two men were given food during the training. Police have also provided location of Rangers Shooting and Saddle Club at Gadap Town in Karachi where the two men received arms training and were trained in long distance firing.
Drones to smuggle IEDs
The charge sheet also claims RDX based improvised explosive devices (IED) were flown to Punjab using a drone at the Indo-Pak border.
According to police, during interrogation, accused Humaidur Rehman allegedly revealed that an ISI handler named Mansoor used a drone to deliver the explosives after which it was picked up by another unidentified ISI operative in Punjab and brought to Lucknow.
The charge sheet also mentions the names and photographs of several people who helped Zeeshan and Osama enter Pakistan via Muscat.
THE CHARGE SHEET INDICATES THAT THE ALLEGED TERROR PLOT MAY HAVE BEEN COORDINATED BY THE EX-TALIBAN LEADER AND I.S.I.