The two Pakistan-trained terror suspects—Osama and Zeeshan—arrested by the Delhi police special cell in a multi-state operation this week, were trained to blow up railway tracks and bridges and target crowded places during the upcoming festival season, police sources have revealed. Interrogation has also revealed that they were collecting information about train routes. They had also planned blasts similar to the 1993 blasts in Mumbai where a series of terrorist bombings took place, resulting in 257 fatalities and 1,400 injuries. In this case, 1.5 kg of RDX was found in their possession when they were caught by the Special Cell earlier this week. “Such a large quantity of RDX is enough for large-scale destruction,” an official privy to the investigation said.
During the course of investigation, Delhi Police found that both Osama’s father Mohd Usaidur Rehman, and his uncle Humaid from Uttar Pradesh were a part of this module. In fact, Humaid was the one who motivated Osama and Zeeshan to go to Pakistan and get training to make explosives, sources said. Osama’s father Usaidur is believed to be in Dubai. Police said that they would be disposing of the two IEDs which were recovered from UP’s Prayagraj. A total of two IEDs, two hand grenades, two Italian pistols and 50 live cartridges were recovered from their possession. More suspects from UP were picked up, but all were allowed to go, as nothing suspicious was found from them. The police investigation is going on in two directions—first, ascertaining the identities of associates who might be operating sleeper cells. Zeeshan and Obama during interrogation had said that during their 15 days of training, they had met some Bangla speaking people. The other aspect police are working on is about who all their targets were.
The 15 Bangla-speaking persons trained by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in a town named Jioni near Gwadar port along with two arrested terrorists in explosives handling, are suspected to be from West Bengal. Initially, the Special Cell sleuths suspected that 15 to 16 persons were from Bangladesh, but after interrogation of the arrested suspected terrorists, it has come to light that they are from West Bengal.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra ATS team reached Delhi on Thursday. “Our team has reached Delhi and is in touch with Delhi Police and will interrogate accordingly,” said Vineet Agarwal, Maharashtra ATS chief. According to officials connected to the probe, underworld operative Jaan Mohammad Shaikh of Dharavi in Mumbai and one of the arrested suspects, was a close contact of Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Anees Ibrahim.
Officials are also trying to unearth the role of sleeper cells, and more arrests are likely in the coming days. Sources claimed that the role of sleeper cells has also emerged during the interrogation. “More arrests will be made in the coming days,” said an official.
