NIA nabs 21-year-old terror conduit on cleric’s tip-off

MEERUT/NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency and Meerut Police arrested a 21-year-old man from the district for allegedly providing weapons to members of a suspected ISIS-inspired terror group from

Amroha

and Delhi. The accused, identified as Naeem, was caught on Thursday night, officials said. On Friday morning, the NIA team took him to Delhi for questioning. The ISIS inspired module was led by Mufti Suhail, who has been inclined towards violent jihad for 8-9 years. The module was busted on December 26 when NIA arrested 10 men, including a Suhail from Amroha. The module was planning suicide attacks and serial blasts targeting politicians and government installations in Delhi and other parts of north India.


The agency also recovered a locally made rocket launcher, material for suicide vests and 112 alarm clocks to be used as timers during its searches in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

A Delhi court has allowed the NIA 10-day custodial interrogation of the men after it produced them before it on December 27.

“The members were in an advanced stage of preparation. They were just waiting for the successful assembly of bombs and wanted to hit multiple locations using remote controlled IEDs and pipe bombs and wanted to carry out fidayeen attacks using suicide vests when needed,” a senior NIA official said.

The group is called ‘Harkat ul Harb e Islam’, which loosely translates into ‘war for the cause of Islam’, he said. The “highly radicalised module” of youths in the age group of 20-35 years is completely self-funded and no criminal antecedent of its members has surfaced so far, the official said.

According to police sources, Hapur-based cleric Mohammad Saqib, who was detained after December 26 raid, had revealed the name of Naeem as the supplier of the weapons. Ever since, NIA had conducted several raids in the region but would go back empty handed. As the pressure mounted on his family members and friends, he eventually surrendered before late on Friday night.

Before that, he also interacted with media briefly in which he claimed innocence. “I have no link with any terror outfit. Once investigation is done I will be exonerated.”

However, SP (rural), Rajesh Kumar told TOI, “His claim is baseless. He was arrested from Meerut-Hapur border near Kithore village on late Friday night. NIA had earlier given us circular to arrest Naeem. According to information shared to us by the NIA sleuths, Naeem had supplied a pistol to Amroha-based terror accused who were arrested by ATS and NIA on December 26 last year.