Explosives seized from suspected ISIS operative’s house in UP: Report | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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Explosives seized from suspected ISIS operative’s house in UP: Report

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Byhindustantimes.com | Edited by Meenakshi Ray
Aug 23, 2020 12:37 PM IST

Delhi Police had said on Saturday that they have arrested Mohammed Mushtaqeem Khan, a 36-year-old suspected operative of the Islamic State, from the Capital’s Ridge area.

A huge amount of explosives, including a jacket, has been recovered from the house of the suspected ISIS operative in a village of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, after he was arrested in Delhi, news agency ANI reported.

Suspected ISIS operative Mohammed Mushtaqeem Khan is seen in his native village in Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur on Saturday.(ANI Photo)
Suspected ISIS operative Mohammed Mushtaqeem Khan is seen in his native village in Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur on Saturday.(ANI Photo)

ANI, citing sources, said the jacket was allegedly prepared for a fidayeen attack.

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The Delhi Police had said on Saturday that they have arrested Mohammed Mushtaqeem Khan, a 36-year-old suspected operative of the Islamic State. Police said Khan had planned a “lone wolf” terror strike in a high footfall area in the Capital “using a high-intensity pressure cooker-based improvised explosive device (IED)”.

The police team had reached Balrampur on Saturday with Khan, who was arrested from Ridge Road area in central Delhi following a brief exchange of fire on Friday night. Police said they had 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.

Pramod Kushwaha, deputy commissioner of police (Special Cell), said that they had been tracking the contacts of the IS operative for the past one year. Kushwaha said Khan was in direct touch with the commanders of Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) in Afghanistan through social media platforms.

“He was connected with ISIS for the last many years and was directly in touch with ISIS commanders. He was handled by Yusuf Alhindi, who was killed in Syria later. After that, Abu Huzafa, a Pakistani, was handling him,” he said during a press briefing. His next handler instructed him to operate as a lone wolf operative from India,” the senior official had 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, Kushwaha said.

He said Khan confessed to the police that he tested the explosive device at his village a few months ago.

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