Delhi Police on Saturday said it has arrested eight people while busting what it described as a terror module backed by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence with apparent links to the Mumbai underworld and fugitive gangster-turned-terrorist Shehzad Bhatti.
The arrests were made by Delhi Police’s Special Cell from Delhi, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand over a 17-day operation,said police officials. Investigators said they found evidence pointing to a conspiracy to carry out grenade attacks and shootings targeting popular installations, security establishments, and police personnel in multiple cities, particularly Delhi and Mumbai.
ALSO READ | UP ATS arrests two for alleged ISI-linked plot to target police
Special commissioner of police (special cell) Anil Shukla said four hand grenades and two Glock pistols with 24 cartridges along with two stolen two-wheelers and a mobile phone containing incriminating chats with handlers based in Pakistan and Dubai were recovered. The grenades were made in Pakistani ordnance factory and pistols and cartridges made in Pakistan. Probe revealed that the grenades, pistols and cartridges were “drone-dropped”, but did not specify the place where they were dropped.
“The eight arrested men included a 66-year-old Nepali citizen, Lama Ang Kami, a close aide of Pakistan-based Mumbai underworld operative Munna Jhingada, a known henchman of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Jhingada had carried out an attack on Ibrahim’s rival Chhota Rajan in Bangkok in 2000 and was arrested by Thai agencies, remaining in a Thai jail for 17 years,” said Shukla.
Senior police officers said the special cell’s New Delhi Range (NDR) team, while monitoring some cadres of the Shahzad Bhatti network, received tip-offs that handlers of “Bhatti’s ISI network” in Pakistan and Dubai were planning terror attacks in Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab and Chandigarh.
Based on inputs, 23-year-old Vijay alias “Shooter” from Mirzapur was arrested from Pune on May 14. His interrogation led to associate Nitish Paswan, 23, arrested on May 17 from Sahibganj, Jharkhand. “Vijay was in regular contact with members of Bhatti’s network and carried out various criminal and terror activities in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and UP. He was also tasked to recruit youth for executing terror activities in Delhi-NCR,” said Shukla.
ALSO READ | Punjab Police bust 2 ISI spy rings using solar-powered surveillance
Further arrests included Taoqueer Rizwan Ahmad Shaikh, 27, and Sajid Mehboob Shaikh alias Arbaz Khan, 27, from Mumbai on May 27. Both were in contact with Pakistan’s ISI handlers Yawar Khan and Sayyed Muzzakir Mudassar Hussain, alias Munna Jhingada.
The officer cited above, who sought to remain anonymous, said that the probe revealed that another group of three people from Punjab was arriving in Delhi to carry out attacks. Harvinder Singh, 28, Gagandeep Singh, 28, and Manjeet Singh, 23 – all residents of Ludhiana – were intercepted on Mehrauli-Badarpur Road around 1am on Saturday and arrested.
