The Delhi Police Special Cell has averted a terror strike by arresting three persons with improvised explosive devices (IED) in Assam, a police officer said on Monday.
The suspects, identified as Ranjeet Ali, Islam, and Jamaal are believed to be influenced by the Islamic State (IS).
The Delhi Police said they got inputs on the movement of several suspected persons of an IS module in the city. Their target was a religious congregation.
“We were carrying out major search operations across the city for the last two weeks after we got inputs from intelligence agencies,” said the police officer. A team of the Special Cell was sent to Assam.
“They were arrested from Goalpara area. They had planned a blast in Delhi. But before that they almost planted a bomb at the Dudhnoi Rasleela mela in Assam as a rehearsal,” said Pramod Kushwah, DCP (Special Cell).
They were about to execute their plan today, the last day of Dudhnoi Rasleela festival, but it was averted, Mr. Kushwah added.
The IEDs recovered from them were similar to the one used in the March 7, 2017 Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train blast that injured eight persons near the Jabdi station in Madhya Pradesh.
Hours after the incident, three terror suspects each were arrested in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and Saifullah, a suspect holed up in a building in Lucknow, was killed after an encounter that lasted several hours.
