Al Qaeda active in city, nearby areas

From September 4, 2014, when Al Qaeda chief Ayman Mohammed Rabie Al-Zawahiri in a 55-minute video launched an Indian wing, the terror outfit, to the alarm of security agencies, especially the Delhi police, seems to have made considerable inroads, as evident from the arrest of five members of one module within a month, two of them from the national capital region (NCR).

Highly-placed sources in the Delhi police, who claim the presence of at least eight Al Qaeda modules, said: “From our investigations, it is clear now that Al Qaeda Indian Sub-continent (AQIS) has succeeded in penetrating into the country and has mobilised vulnerable targets to volunteer for the terror cause,” adding, “To our surprise, there are several places within the city and neighbouring areas like Mewat, Azamgarh, Sambhal, where suspected operatives are hiding and even planning, constantly getting support from their masters across the border.”

The first suspect, Mohammed Asif, who turned out to be one of the founding members of the AQIS, was arrested on December 16 from Seelampur in northeast Delhi where he was motivating and recruiting men for the terror outfit.

His closeness to Al-Zawahiri is evident from the probability that he was present at the shura (gathering) in Afghanistan when its chief founded the Indian branch, immediately after which he came to India to launch the recruitment drive.

In a parallel operation, the same day, a joint team of the Delhi and Orissa police apprehended another master recruiter Abdul Rahman who, after travelling to Pakistan, Dubai, London and Saudi Arabia, returned to India to further the cause of spreading AQIS. He was hand-picked by Al-Zawahiri himself, added the sources.

In the third arrest, which took place on December 17, the Delhi police’s special cell caught main financier of AQIS Zafar Mahmood from Sambhal district of Uttar Pradesh, just three hours drive from the city.

Zafar, the sources said, had been financing Asif for his recruitment goals and had sent to him more than $300 in instalments over a period of a year. A former operative of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), Masood even arranged for a visit of Asif and two others — Serjil (his nephew) and Rehan — to Pakistan via Iran and Afghanistan for combat training. He himself is trained in explosives and Kalashnikov rifles.

Nineteen days after these consecutive arrests, the Delhi police picked a madrasa teacher, Maulana Anzar Shah Qasim, from Bengaluru for his alleged role in the activities of the AQIS. “He has been the main instigator and facilitator through his rabid speeches for which he had even been booked and arrested earlier,” said the highly-placed source, adding, “Not only was he instigating men to join the AQIS, he was also assisting some by providing them shelter.”

“One of his major involvement being probed is arrangement for one Umar Hyderabadi for his visit to Af-Pak region for training in jihad.”

On Monday, the cops said, that the chain lead them to Abdul Sami, their fifth arrest so far, from Mewat in Haryana, just over 8-km from the city. “It is coming to the fore again and again that Delhi and its neighbouring areas are being used as breeding grounds for the AQIS,” added the highly-placed source, adding, “Not only is it alarming but also a challenge for the security agencies.”