Just days ahead of India’s 73rd Republic Day celebrations, country’s security forces have busted a terrorist cell suspected of plotting a series of jihad terror attacks in New Delhi. Two suspects, believed to part of an eight-member terror cell, were arrested and weapons supplied from neighboring Pakistan were recovered during the police operation, Indian news agencies reported Tuesday.
The terrorists taken into custody were planning to assassinate prominent right-wing Hindu politicians in the nation’s capital, media reports suggest. “A senior police officer said, during interrogation, the duo disclosed to the police that they were planning to target right-wing leaders,” The Hindu newspaper reported.
One of the suspects had been receiving instructions from the Pakistan-based Islamic terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). “Police said Naushad was being handled by a suspected LeT handler while Jagjit was being given instructions by Canada-based Arshdheep Dalla, a designated terrorist,” the Indian daily added.
New Delhi Police are conducting a manhunt for at least four members of the terror cell still believed to be in the capital, local media reports indicate.
The Indian newspaper Economic Times reported the details of the ongoing counterterrorism operation:
Ahead of Republic Day, Delhi Police is hunting for four other terror suspects, besides the two who were arrested last week from the Jahangirpuri area in the national capital, sources said on Tuesday.
According to the Delhi Police Special Cell sources, the terror suspects recieved weapons from Pakistan through the drop-dead method and were in touch with their handlers on the other side of the border through a social media app.
“Delhi Police looking for 4 other suspects. They received weapons from Pakistan through the drop-dead method and were in contact with handlers in Pak[istan] on the Signal app. They got weapons at an unidentified location in Uttarakhand which is being verified,” sources said.
This comes after two terrorists were arrested from the Jahangirpuri area in Delhi earlier in January who, according to the police, were tasked to carry out the targeted attacks in various states.
In the latest development, the Delhi Police got information about the involvement of 8 persons in the module. The police suspect the possible presence of four suspects in India presently.
“Their handlers sitting at the border sent instructions on the Signal app, after which they shared the location of the bag full of weapons through Google Maps. About 8 people are involved in this module of terrorists out of which 4 can still be present in India only. 2 terrorists were used to provide weapons and 2 were used to send the Google location of the weapons to their bosses by keeping the weapons at a particular location,” sources said.
According to sources, the weapons recovered from the terrorists were found at an unknown location in Uttarakhand which is now being verified.
Meanwhile, the two terror suspects arrested from the Jahangirpuri area of the national capital on Thursday were assigned to carry out targeted killings of rightwing leaders on January 27 and January 31, sources in the Delhi Police claimed on Monday.
The Republic Day pageantries, held every year on January 26 in New Delhi, attract tens of thousands of ordinary citizens, along with leading Indian politicians and foreign dignitaries to the capital.
The threat of a large-scale Islamic terror attack to India’s capital is a serious one. Lashkar-e-Taiba, the jihadist group behind the busted terrorist cell, carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, which killed 166 people and wounded 300 others. Islamic terrorists, trained in Pakistan, struck Mumbai’s financial district and a Jewish cultural center, a symbol of India’s growing diplomatic and cultural ties with the State of Israel.
Devasur says
They do it every year. MSM is crying about imaginary Hindu terrorism.