- Danish, who claims to be studying for the SSC exams, was reportedly making bombs for terror group ISIS
- The trail led to his squalid Ranchi home after another member of the terror cell, Aftab, was arrested in Delhi
- Police recovered bombs and weapons from the room, and plans to target top BJP leaders
Buried in a non-descript corner of Ranchi's Islamnagar area is Tabarak Lodge, masquerading as a 'hotel' but really a dingy and dilapidated structure that lets out tiny, cramped rooms.
Enter, and walk down a long, narrow, and dimly-lit corridor, a yawning blackness at the other end. On either side there are cheap plywood doors with slippers and shoes lined up outside each.
A few paces down, on the left, is room number 15, a particularly filthy black grime covering part of a door that was once painted a cheerful yellow. A pair of slippers rests outside the door.
The yellow door hid a deadly secret over the past several months.
Behind it Ashhar Danish, a young man 'studying' for the competitive SSC exam for appointment to government jobs, was, in fact, making bombs for the dreaded ISIS terror group.
The yellow door gave up its secrets last week, after Delhi Police's arrest and interrogation of another terrorist, Aftab Qureshi, led to raids in other states. Eventually, based on information supplied by Aftab and found on these raids, cops from the national capital and Jharkhand's Anti-Terrorism Squad conducted a joint op to track down and arrest Danish and a dozen others.
And with his arrest, sources said, a terrorist cell involved in making bombs and recruitment, and with plans to target senior leaders from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, was stopped.
Sources told NDTV gunpowder and bombs, as well as large quantities of potassium nitrate, and homemade weapons were recovered from Danish's room. The explosives were made in this room and then tested by detonating them in the waters of the Subarnarekha River.
Packages containing potassium nitrate, an accelerant material, were found.
Potassium nitrate, also called saltpeter, is a chemical compound also found in fertilisers and used to make gunpowder. A white crystalline powder, it can be harmful if inhaled or ingested.
Explosives of various size and intensity were recovered from the room, sources said.
But room number 15 was not just a bomb factory. It was also a recruitment centre. Sources said Danish, who moved in sometime last year, Danish himself had been recruited and radicalised by a Pakistani handler operating through social media, after which he too began drafting people.
Much of this recruitment and radicalisation, sources said, was done through the Signal messaging app, one of several that offers end-to-end encryption. Multiple groups were created with mundane names like 'intern interview' or 'business idea', to mask what was going on.
These and other groups were also used to raise funds that were used to buy bomb-making materials; knives and chemicals were ordered from Amazon and Danish's Pak handler taught him to how to make the explosives, including PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, bombs.
These and other bombs, including those with acetone peroxide - grimly called 'mother of Satan' - as the primary ingredient, were made here, tested, and stockpiled. Weapons were found too.
The other members of this module have been identified as Sufian Khan, Mohammad Huzaif Yaman, and Kamran Kamran Qureshi, whom reportedly had plans to attack religious sites.
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