3 men held from Assam for ‘planning attack in capital’

“At least one full IED, 1 kg explosives, two baton swords, pipes and nails, and four mobile phones have been recovered from the men,” he said. They were allegedly going to target the Raasmela festival on Monday evening — the last day of the annual 14-day festival — as the footfall is high, added the DCP.

The men were arrested in a joint operation by Delhi and Assam police. Kushwah said during interrogation, the men told them the “recovered IED is complete and they had planned to connect the battery just before planting it at Raasmela”.

“The men also said that Assam would have been the trial run; if the blast would have been successful, then Delhi would have been next… they were in touch with some radicalised groups in Delhi. We are investigating if they had visited Delhi, done any recces or decided upon a place. For now, we know that they would have attacked a high footfall place. The men said the IED to conduct blasts in Delhi had been arranged,” said Kushwah.

Police said that Ranjeet worked at a fish trading centre, Mukadir was a driver and Zameel worked as a supervisor at an Aadhaar Enrollment Centre. All three accused are residents of Goalpara district.

“The men watched do-it-yourself videos on how to make explosives and were self-radicalised in all likelihood. In such cases, mostly the accused get radicalised by watching online content. We are investigating this,” said Kushwah.

Police have got a 10-day remand of the three men.