The Delhi police have arrested three persons allegedly sympathetic to the banned terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed in the national capital.
The suspects, planning a major terror strike at a busy market place or a shopping mall in the city, have been identified as Sajid Ahmad, Sameer Ahmed and Shakir Ansari, the police said.
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While Sajid, 19, and Sameer hail from Gokalpur in northeast Delhi and neighbouring Loni district in Uttar Pradesh respectively, Shakir is a resident of Deoband in Uttar Pradesh. They were produced before a court, which remanded them in police custody for 10 days.
The police and other security agencies have detained nearly a dozen people for questioning, sources said.
The police said the arrest came after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that Sajid was allegedly trying to assemble went off accidentally on Monday night, injuring his left hand. The police claimed that the accused were self-indoctrinated by watching online videos of the JeM and “atrocities” on Muslims around the world.
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Their movements were tracked by Central agencies and the Special Cell of the Delhi police for the last six months. Police said all suspects had met at Sajid’s house on April 20 to discuss their plans. The breakthrough, according to the police, came on Tuesday after their source informed them about the explosion. Sajid’s house was raided. Upon his arrest, one live IED, one damaged IED and raw materials were recovered. Parallel raids were conducted in Loni and Deoband and Gokalpur and Bhajanpura in Delhi to arrest the other suspects.
According to official sources, Sajid was the mastermind, who influenced the others to be part of the gang.