ATS arrests one more suspect with ISIS link, total arrests reach to 10 including juvenile
The State Anti-Terrorism Squad which had earlier arrested nine people, including a juvenile, over alleged links to terror group ISIS, arrested a man from the Mumbra locality in Thane in connection with the case on Saturday.
The forces identified a man as Talha Putrik for having alleged links with ISIS, regarding their abortive bid to launch mass attacks at huge events by using poisonous chemicals. In the course of a detailed search of his residence, the ATS officials seized a laptop, a tablet computer, hard disk, pen drives, router, mobile phones and diaries.
The ATS had last week arrested nine people including 17 year-old youth from Aurangabad and Thane following raids at various locations between January 21-22. The arrests came during the course of an investigation into the presence of sleeper cells ahead of Republic Day.
Those arrested have been identified as Salman Khan, Fahad Shah, Zamen Kutepadi, Mohseen Khan, Mazhar Shaikh, Taki Khan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Zahid Shaikh and a 17-year-old. Three of the men are brothers whose main task was to recruit and radicalise young men.
According to ATS sources, when it was revealed that the group is likely to carry out terror acts, the ATS formed about a dozen teams and carried out searches and seizures at five different locations in Mumbra, Thane and Aurangabad simultaneously. During the intervening night and early morning of January, the ATS seized chemicals, powder, mobile phones, hard drives, SIM cards, acid bottles, knives etc during the raids.
Three of the nine — lman, Mohseen and Taki — are brothers, and were influenced by ISIS sympathisers and were given the specific task to radicalise others to join ISIS. Mohseen, the eldest of the trio, was monitoring every member from Mumbra and was connected with the propaganda module of ISIS and was head of the local module.
Mazhar Shaikh who worked in private firm in Bhiwandi as a computer engineer met Mohseen and Salman during Ramadan in a mosque at Mumbra last year. Mohseen left three days ago for Aurangabaad and was picked by the ATS official. On Monday evening Mazhar was nabbed in Mumbra when he boarded a bus for Aurangabaad.
Fahad Shah, a civil engineer, got in touch with Salman during Ramadan at a mosque in Mumbra following which they were in regular touch and often visited Aurangabaad together. Fahad also had a visa for Saudi Arabia. The ATS claimed that Salman had radicalised Fahad.
ATS officials also picked up a minor boy from Mumbra who had also been radicalised. He had completed his diploma in electronics and cyber science. Zamen Kuttepadi who worked as medical representative has very good knowledge about chemicals and Mohseen allegedly recruited him for any possible chemical attack and logistic support, the ATS said.
Another suspect Sarfaraz Ahmed was helped by Salman in identifying youths in mosques in a bid to radicalise them, the ATS said.
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