The Special Cell of Delhi Police arrested an ISIS operative after a brief encounter near Ridge Road in the national capital on late Friday night (August 21). Two Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), weighing approximately 15 kilogrammes in two pressure cookers and a pistol, were recovered from his possessions. The police claimed that the suspect was plotting a “lone wolf attack” in the national capital.
The ISIS operative has been identified as Abu Yusuf Khan who hails from Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh. He was nabbed on Ridge Road between Karol Bagh and Dhaula Kuan in Delhi after a shootout at around 11:30 pm on Friday. Khan was on a bike when he was intercepted by the Delhi Police.
After the arrest, the suspect was taken to the Special Cell Office in Lodhi Colony. A Delhi Police official stated that interrogation of the arrested terrorist is underway. Furthermore, to determine if Yusuf Khan had accomplices in other parts of the city or country, raids are being conducted all over the capital.
After the arrest, police have heightened the security near Buddha Jayanti Park in Ridge Road area, with teams of National Security Guard (NSG) commandos and sniffer dogs keeping a tight vigil in the locale. The Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) has also been deployed to analyse the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) that were recovered earlier from the suspect.
“For the last few months, a team of New Delhi Range was tracking his movement. On Friday evening, they learnt that he would be coming to the Ridge area. Acting on this information, a trap was laid and the accused was arrested after six rounds of firing,” a senior police officer commented.
A high alert has also been sounded in UP, for the arrested is a resident of Balrampur. Uttar Pradesh director general of police, HC Awasthy, has instructed all police chiefs and other field officers to remain vigilant.
This incident comes days after a doctor was arrested in Bengaluru for alleged links to ISIS. Abdur Rahman, 28, who worked as an ophthalmologist at a medical college in the city, was arrested by the NIA (National Investigation Agency) based on intelligence from a couple arrested in Delhi in March. The NIA, with the assistance of the Karnataka Police, arrested Rahman at the MS Ramaiah Hospital in Bengaluru, on the charge of conspiring with Jahanzaib Sami Wani of J&K.
In addition to this, earlier this week, two men pleaded guilty before a Delhi court for being part of an ISIS conspiracy to recruit Muslim youth through social media to carry out terror attacks in India. Abu Anas and Najmul Huda were among 16 people charge-sheeted by the NIA in the case in 2016-17. The group had allegedly formed the Junood-ul-Khilafa-Fil-Hind organisation, which pledged allegiance to ISIS. The sentencing hearing for six others who pleaded guilty in the case previously will be held on Monday.
As the nation battles a raging pandemic, a debilitating economy and an aggravating job crisis, incidents pertaining to terrorism and violent encounters between the law and those who pose a threat to the same, only add to the rising public paranoia. The swift action taken by the law enforcement agencies is noteworthy and DU EXPRESS will update the story as and when it develops.
