They arrested the Indian Mujahideen’s bomb expert and seized a huge quantity of explosives. So it seems as if not just Narendra Modi, but many others around him would have died, had these would-be jihad murderers succeeded in carrying out their plans. Note also that Waqas is a Pakistani national. Will the Pakistanis cooperate with Indian officials in investigating this jihad plot? What do you think?
“Four Indian Mujahideen terrorists arrested, had plans to target Narendra Modi,” by Rahul Tripathi for the Indian Express, March 23:
Terror outfit, Indian Mujahideen’s (IM) expert bomb-maker, Waqas alias Javed, a resident of Punjab in Pakistan was arrested along with three others suspected members of IM from Jaipur and Jodhpur in Rajasthan by the Special Cell of Delhi police.
The terror module, which was busted with the help of Intelligence Bureau, was learnt to have been holed up in Rajasthan for past few weeks and had plans to carry out terror attacks during the election rally of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
The counter-terror sleuths also claimed to have seized huge cache of explosives and detonators. Waqas is learnt to have trained several other members of the module in making bombs. He was learnt to be experimenting with new bomb-making materials after restrictions were imposed by the government on the easy availability of Ammonium Nitrate.
Waqas was sent by Riyaz Bhatkal to India in 2010 and is alleged to be involved in the 2010 Jama Masjid attack, 2010 Varanasi blast, Triple Mumbai blasts and 2013 Hyderabad blast. His arrest will help the agencies to identify other absconding members of IM including Tahseen Akhtar, who is believed to be heading a different module.
His initial interrogation revealed that he was also responsible for experimenting for the first time with hydrogen peroxide during the 2010 Varanasi blasts. Waqas is also reported to be suffering from a temporary paralysis in his face, a fact which helped the investigators to narrow him down.
The interrogations also revealed that Waqas was also planning to target foreign tourists in Rajasthan and in particular Israeli nationals visiting Pushkar. Trained in Pakistan, he also had an alias of ‘Javii’ and Javed. He was presently experimenting to make ‘magnet bombs’, something similar which were used to target Israeli embassy official at New Delhi in 2012, said officials.
The three others who were arrested along with Waqas are said to have been recruited by Riyaz and then put under Waqas to train them in bomb-making. Waqas also reportedly had plans to visit Pakistan after carrying out an audacious attack. He had earlier visited Nepal and stayed with IM co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and Asadullah Akhtar, added officials.