BTech grads, Physics teacher: 3 men ‘part of ISIS terror module’ arrested

Officers said that the three men swore allegiance to ISIS as their Pakistan handlers had ties to ISIS as well as Pakistan ISI. They added that ISIS operated in the background so it circumvents scrutiny by international agencies. Pak-ISI handlers were controlling the activities of the three men, officers added.

Special CP (Special Cell) HGS Dhaliwal said the accused were produced before a local court and remanded to seven-day police custody.

Police said the men were “heavily religiously indoctrinated”. “The accused are involved in several terror attack cases across the country and were being controlled by cross-border handlers from Pakistan. Early interrogation has so far revealed that they had influence in Western and Southern India, where they had carried out an extensive recon. They had also tried to set up base in the Western Ghats and carried out an elaborate recce at Gujarat,” said the Special CP.

Officers added that the accused had strategised local procurement of weapons so that the blame did not fall on cross-border elements. “All three had a scientific bent of mind which helped them test bombs in forest areas to ensure success during final execution,” said Dhaliwal.

According to police, Shahnawaz had come to Delhi in November 2016 to prepare for the SSC exam and stayed in Abul Fazal Enclave. He would go to Shaheen Bagh to allegedly listen to lectures by Radical Islamic group Hizb-ut-Tahrir. Around this time, Shahnawaz became “influenced by ISIS ideology”.

In 2016, Shahnawaz also met Rizwan and they became good friends. … “Rizwan was also inclined to the ISIS. Shahnawaz was arrested in Hazaribagh in multiple cases of dacoity and theft in 2019 and remained in jail for 8-9 months,” said Dhaliwal. In 2020, he was granted bail.

Later, Shahnawaz started communicating with a foreign-based ISIS handler and Rizwan also established contact with the same person. “They visited several places like Lavasa, Mahabaleshwar, Goa, Hubli to find suitable hideouts in the Western Ghats to set up base. Shahnawaz also conducted a recce of crowded places, mazars/darghahs, routes of VIP leaders in Mumbai, Surat, Vadodara to plant IEDs (for most) casualties…,” said an officer.
“Since December 2022, on the instructions of his foreign-based handler, Shahnawaz, Rizwan along with their other associates had started accumulating material for IEDs in Delhi… in furtherance of their conspiracy to carry out blasts,” added Dhaliwal.

Warsi comes from a middle-class family in Jharkhand; his father was a teacher at a government school. “He studied at Aligarh Muslim University and did his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering. He moved to Delhi and studied at Jamia Milia Islamia for an MBA in Marketing and Operations in 2018,” said police.

Currently, he is pursuing his PhD from Jamia on the Islamic Principles in Management. Police said Warsi also worked as a Physics teacher at an institute in Jamia Nagar and provided home tuition.

Ashraf was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and his father worked as a clerk in a shipping company. He completed his BTech in IT from a Ghaziabad college in 2017, following which he returned to Prayagraj and got married. Dhaliwal said, “Ashraf is a member of ISIS and is in communication with the same handler as that of Shahnawaz and Rizwan.”