‘Recovered IED deadly mix of matchstick powder, shrapnel’

ARREST OF ‘IS RECRUIT’ IN MAHARASHTRA

A DEADLY mix of matchstick powder, sulfur, charcoal, urea and potassium nitrate (saltpetre) with shrapnel embedded in it “to cause extra damage” was the composition of the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) allegedly recovered from an suspected Islamic State (IS) recruit, Shaheed Khan, a Parbhani resident who was arrested Saturday night by the Maharashtra Antiterrorism Squad (ATS). According to sources, this IED was remote controlled and the triggering device was fitted in a “car key operating on radio waves”.

According to the sources, Khan is an associate of Nasir Chaus, a 31-year-old civil engineering dropout from the same district who was arrested by the agency earlier this month. The sources said the ‘Parbhani module’ was asked to carry out a lone wolf attack in the Marathwada region by their alleged Syriabased handler Farooque. While the state counter-terrorism agency has arrested two locals, more arrests are likely.

“The IED is similar to that prepared by the ‘Hardwar module’ of the Islamic State accused of conspiring to attack the Ardh Kumbh Mela. Since the device was remote-controlled, we suspect the target was an individual. However, the use of shrapnel indicates that the IED could also have been placed in places of high footfall so as to cause maximum damage through stampede, which would have followed the blast,” a senior ATS official told The Indian Express.

“Though it’s a ‘perfect bomb’, the IED was a low-intensity one. While the duo are saying they were planning to carry out an attack in Marathwada, they are not revealing their targets,” added the official.

“The material used to assemble the IED is easily available as most of them are fertilisers and are readily available. Even though the IED was of low intensity, the intention we suspect was to create panic and assert the outfit’s presence in Maharashtra,” explained another source.

“We suspect that Farooque shared the links on bomb making, which Chaus downloaded and shared with Khan. Information on how to assemble a bomb is readily available on IS’S magazine Dabiq. Other than this, Farooque also shared material on the same through encrypted messenger services. Of the many videos allegedly shared by Farooque to draw them to the IS fold also include the recent propaganda video released by the banned outfit featuring the two Kalyan youths (Fahad Sheikh and Aman Tandel) who have joined IS,” said another official.

Khan’s arrests follows the interrogation of Chaus from whom the police had recovered a diagram on ‘how to assemble explosives’, a few wires and a circuit. Khan was interrogated and subsequently placed under arrest on Saturday night.

According to the sources, commerce graduate Khan (24) lived with his family in Parbhani and was currently unemployed. They said Khan first met Chaus at a common mosque in the neighbourhood and the two started having discussions on IS, sharing “the same passion of serving the Caliphate”. Chaus then introduced Khan to his Syria-based handler Farooque and subsequently their conversation moved from social networking sites to encrypted messenger services like Telegram, Surespot etc.