ISIS Terrorists Planned On Targeting Right Wing Leaders, Reveal Chats: Sources

The five suspected ISIS operatives, who were arrested in a joint operation spread across different states, were planning to target some right-wing leaders, an investigation into their chats revealed.

According to officials, some of the terrorists were also preparing suicide jackets and suicide bombers.

The module, sources said, had around 40 active members - of which only five were aware of the terror activity.

The five arrests were made in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Telangana. Two accused - Aftab and Abu Sufiyan - both residents of Mumbai, were arrested from Delhi's Nizamuddin railway station with weapons on them. They were on their way to Mumbai.

The main accused, Ashar Danish, was arrested from Ranchi. According to sources, Danish was injured earlier while making the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED). He is a post-graduate in English and went with a code name 'Gazwa'. Sources said that he arrived in the city in January this year and disguised himself as a student.

While Kamran Qureshi from arrested from Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh, Hazaif Yemen was found in Telangana.

Officials said the accused specialised in manufacturing chemical weapons and were part of the sleeper module of the terror organisation and were tasked with making bombs, procuring weapons, and increasing the strength of the organisation. They were running a "Khilafat" model to recruit youngsters for the organisation. The module's handler is from Pakistan, sources said.

The terrorists remained in touch through the social media platform - Signal App, sources added.

Officials had recovered a large amount of chemicals and weapons cartridges from the terrorists. They also seized a pistol, a laptop, mobile phones, weighing machine, beaker set, safety gloves, respiratory masks, a plastic container with a motherboard, and wires.