The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on Sunday arrested a Parbhani native and seized around one kilogram of crude explosives from his house.
Officials said the accused was in touch with Naseerbin Chaus, a native of the same area, who was earlier arrested by the ATS for his alleged links with the terrorist outfit Islamic State (IS). According to ATS officials, the accused has been identified as Shahid Khan, an engineering student staying in the same locality as Naseerbin.
“Shahid had procured the raw material from various sources and was mixing them to put together a crude explosive. We have sent the seized material for forensic analysis,” said an ATS officer.
Sources said that Naseerbin, in his interrogation, revealed to the ATS that he had been in touch with Shahid and that the latter was making explosives in his house.
The ATS then put Shahid under surveillance and after Naseerbin’s claims were confirmed, arrested him.
The ATS is now finding out whether Shahid was recruited by Naseerbin, or if he was acting on the instructions of a handler from the IS. Naseerbin, a civil contractor, was arrested earlier this month for his alleged links with the IS.
He is alleged to have been in touch with an IS member from Syria identified as Farooq.
The Hindu had on July 17 reported that Farooq was training Naseerbin to be a lone wolf attacker, and Naseerbin had assembled improvised explosive devices (IEDs) under Farooq’s tutelage. Officials said that Shahid had also helped Naseerbin procure some of the materials that he needed for putting together the IEDs.
