Anti-terror units of many states and Delhi special cell officers are carrying out raids across the country hunting suspected mastermind of the terror module Humaid.
“Last known location of Humaid was in Uttar Pradesh. We are in touch with Uttar Pradesh anti-terror squad and raids are being carried out at various places,” said a top IPS officer privy to the probe.
Humaid, a relative of arrested accused Osama, a resident of Delhi’s Jamia Nagar, was allegedly coordinating the entire terror network in India.
The police are also looking for Osama’s father Humaid-ur-Rehman. His whereabouts are unknown.
Osama and Zeeshan Qamar, a resident of UP’s Allahabad, were sent to Muscat in Oman by Humaid to join training in Pakistan where the ISI took them to Gwadar through sea routes. In Jioni, near Gwadar, Both received training in making bombs, IEDs and committing arson using pedestrian items and handling small firearms and AK-47s.
Following interrogation, it was revealed that Osama left for Muscat, Oman in April where he met Zeeshan who had also come from India. They were joined by 15-16 Bengali-speaking people and divided into sub-groups but Zeeshan and Osama were put in the same group.
At Jioni, they were received by a Pakistani who took them to a farmhouse in Thatta, Pakistan and meet three Pakistanis. Two of them, Jabbar and Hamza, who trained them for around 15 days, wore military outfits.
The duo came back to Muscat through the same route.
Apart from Osama and Zeeshan, the other four arrested accused terrorists have been identified as Jaan Mohammad Shaikh, resident of Maharashtra’s Mumbai, Moolchand, resident of UP’s Rae Bareilly, Mohd Abu Bakar resident of UP’s Behraich and Mohd Amir Javed resident of UP’s Lucknow.
All the accused are in police custody for 14 days.
According to conspiracy, the arrested persons were assigned roles in the plan.
On 14 September, on the basis of intelligence gathered through human as well as technical nodes, simultaneous raids were conducted in different states. Initially, underworld operative Jaan Mohd Sheikh was apprehended from near Kota, Rajasthan while he was on his way to Delhi; Osama was apprehended from Okhla, Delhi; Mohd Abu Bakar was apprehended from Sarai Kale Khan, Delhi; Zeeshan was apprehended from Allahabad, UP; Mohd Amir Javed was apprehended from Lucknow, UP and Moolchand was apprehended from Rae Bareilly, UP. The operation in UP was done in close and successful coordination with officers of the Uttar Pradesh ATS.
Interrogation has revealed that this module had received sophisticated RDX based IEDs, grenades, pistols and cartridges from a sleeper cell operative and these were sent to UP for safe concealment. The police are looking for sleeper cell operatives who are still in hiding.
Underworld operative Jaan Mohd Sheikh along with Moolchand were tasked by Pakistan-based Anees Ibrahim, the brother of Dawood Ibrahim, to receive the same in Delhi. The same was to be handed over to other terror operatives in Delhi and Mumbai and other parts of the country. More deliveries were planned through the same channel.
The Pak-ISI trained terror component was tasked with reconnaissance of targets and planting of the IEDs.