Srinagar: A preacher from Haryana who allegedly helped store explosives in his rented home near Faridabad’s Al Falah university was detained and brought to Srinagar early Wednesday, Jammu and Kashmir police officials said.
Maulvi Ishtiyaq belongs to Mewat and would conduct religious sermons in the Al Falah campus, the centrepoint of an interstate ‘white collar’ terror module with links to the Red Fort blast in which 12 people were killed, the officials said.
It was from his rented home that police recovered more than 2,500 kg of ammonium nitrate, potassium chlorate and sulphur, they said.
The explosives were stored by Dr Muzammil Ganaie, alias Musaib and Dr Umar Nabi, the man who was driving an explosives-laden car which detonated outside Red Fort Monday evening.
In total, 2,900 kg of explosive material was found. Of this, 360 kg of inflammable material, suspected to be ammonium nitrate as well as arms and ammunition, were recovered from Ganaie’s rented accommodation in Faridabad.
Ishtiyaq was detained after a series of raids conducted by the Jammu and Kashmir police along with their Haryana counterparts.
He is likely to be placed under arrest.
He will be the ninth person to be nabbed in the case by police, which carried out interstate raids November 10 along with their counterparts in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to unravel a ‘white-collar’ terror network of banned Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind.
Police here believe they have successfully thwarted the destructive designs of both terror groups. Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind is an offshoot of ISIS in India.
Ganaie, a teacher at the Al Falah University in the Haryana town abutting New Delhi, was arrested after Jammu and Kashmir police named him as a wanted person in a case involving putting up posters supporting the JeM in Srinagar.
That was the starting point of the investigation, with Srinagar police registering a case against unknown people. This led to the unravelling of the interstate terror network.
Police officials said the probe points to a terror ecosystem involving radicalised professionals and students in contact with foreign handlers operating from Pakistan and other countries.
These professionals, under the guise of social and charitable causes, were allegedly involved in identifying persons for radicalisation and subsequent recruitment in terrorist ranks, besides raising funds, arranging logistics, procurement of arms and ammunition and material for preparing IEDs.
Of the eight people arrested, seven are from Kashmir. They are Arif Nisar Dar alias Sahil, Yasir-ul-Ashraf and Maqsood Ahmad Dar alias Shahid from Nowgam in Srinagar; Maulvi Irfan Ahmad from Shopian; Zameer Ahmad Ahanger alias Mutlasha from Wakura area of Ganderbal; Dr Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie alias Musaib from Koil area of Pulwama, and Dr Adeel from Wanpora area of Kulgam. Dr Shaheen Sayeed is from Lucknow.
