‘Harkat Ul Harb-E-Islam’: NIA Busts Major Indian ISIS Module Run By Mosque Cleric; Weapons, Rocket Launcher Recovered

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has detained ten people from Uttar Pradesh and Delhi today ( December 26 ) for their suspected involvement an ISIS-inspired new terror group 'Harkat ul Harb e Islam', that planned to carry out blasts in North India, especially New Delhi, Times of India reported.

As per the report, the outfit was being run by a mosque cleric named Mufti Sohail who was also in touch with a foreign handler.

The NIA during the course of its investigation interrogated 16 people and, ten subsequently detained. Of them, five were picked up from Amroha, Uttar Pradesh with the help of UP’s anti-terrorist squad and five more from northeast Delhi in association with a special cell of Delhi police.

NIA Inspector General Alok Mittal said that the agency had conducted searches across 17 locations like Delhi’s Seelampur and UP’s Amroha, Hapur, Meerut and Lucknow. The Islamist terror outfit, was planning a series of remote controlled blasts and fidayeen attacks. It was reportedly being run by radicalised youths, aged between 20 and 30, all belonging to middle-class families.

The group reportedly wanted to carry out the blasts at crowded public spaces and security installations, with an aim to target political leaders and VIP's.

The NIA also recovered a large quantity of weapons, ammunition, explosive materials, and even an indigenously-made rocket launcher. Laptops, memory cards, 135 SIM cards and almost 100 mobile phones in addition to Rs 7.5 lakh in cash were also recovered.

The terror outfit, which was formed around four-five months ago had been under the surveillance of NIA, which is still carrying out searches.