Watching the activities of the 13 alleged Jaish-e-Mohammad sympathisers — arrested or detained in the past 24 hours — the Delhi Police Special Cell got a hint on December 20 when they had a meeting at Sajid’s residence.
Sources in the Cell said that the meeting was called by Sajid to give a final shape to the outfit’s plans to carry out strikes in Delhi and other parts of the National Capital region.
“Our sleuths had kept an eye on the men assembling at Sajid’s house and our informer network appraised us about what transpired during it.
“While 12 of those attending the meeting are from Delhi and the NCR, Shakir had come all the way from Deoband to attend the meeting,” said a senior police officer.
However, since the plan was only at the formulation stage and no action had been initiated by the men, the Cell decided not to launch action but instead intensified the surveillance, both at the ground level and the technical level.
They tracked the individual movements of those who participated there, claimed the Cell officers.
Shakir visited Delhi a few more times alarming the investigators with his presence here.
The Cell was also tracking the contents posted on a WhatsApp group where the members were interacting and sharing content as well as fine-tuning the plan.
Sajid, on his part, was allegedly radicalising youths in his area during the period.
He would purportedly show them videos of Maulana Masood Azhar delivering his speeches and videos on atrocities committed against Muslims worldwide.
“After March 2016, some members of this group had started undertaking sudden and quiet journeys beyond Delhi NCR and the deployed human sources also started observing late night and odd hour meetings of sub groups of the larger group under observation,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) P.S. Kushwah.
The JeM link became apparent the following month.
“Some of the members were also observed as travelling discreetly to known local markets and spending considerable time there which raised suspicion.
“On April 18, the operation took a definitive shape when it was learnt that it was Jaish-e-Mohammad, the banned Pakistani terrorist organisation, which was patronising the rabid leaders of this group,” said Mr. Kushwah.
Police raid
Finally, when an IED accidentally went off on May 3, the police raided the house.
They also informed the UP Anti Terrorist Squad and other Central agencies before the raid.
Once Sajid was held, at his instance parallel and subsequent raids were conducted in his locality of Chand Bagh and in UP’s Ghaziabad and Deoband.
While Sajid was the recruiter and Shakir was the one in touch with Maulana Masood Azhar and his brother Talha, Sameer’s name cropped up when Sajid informed him through both call and text that he had assembled an IED and sought instruction about what to do next.
So far, the source of the money allegedly used in buying explosives has not been established, said the police adding that the accused were frequently changing their versions.
The operation took a definitive shape when the banned Pakistani terrorist organisation was found to be patronising the group
