Jamsheed Jahoor, an engineering student in UP, was arrested with Parvez Ahmad Lone late Thursday. Police say they belong to the Islamic State in J&K.
New Delhi: Two alleged operatives of the Islamic State in Jammu & Kashmir (ISJK), arrested by the Delhi Police’s special cell late Thursday, were transporting high-end weapons from Uttar Pradesh to Kashmir through the national capital, ThePrint has learnt.
Police said the weapons were meant for attacks on the security forces in the Valley.
Parvez Ahmad Lone, 24, and Jamsheed Jahoor, 19, both residents of Kashmir’s Shopian, were to board a bus to Jammu, armed with two sophisticated pistols and 10 cartridges, when they were arrested from the Jama Masjid bus stop near Red Fort at 10:45 pm.
While Lone holds a bachelor’s degree in technology and was pursuing his masters, Jamsheed — the son of a Jammu and Kashmir police personnel — is a final-year electronic engineering student at DNS College of Engineering and Technology in UP.
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According to the police, the two men allegedly bought the weapons from Amroha district in Uttar Pradesh.
“The men were working on instructions of their leader, Adil, and his associate, Umar Ibn Nazir, also referred to as Asif. Their job was to fetch high-end weapons from UP and take them to Kashmir,” P.S. Kushwaha, deputy commissioner of police, special cell, said.
“Their plan was not to carry out an attack in Delhi but to gear up for something bigger in Kashmir.”
According to sources, police received information on Wednesday night about the duo traveling to Kashmir with weapons, following which a trap was laid and the arrests were made.
Delhi being used as a transit point
Police said that the men were using Delhi as a transit point and had ferried weapons from UP to Kashmir on several occasions.
“Since ISJK is a relatively new outfit, the men were stocking up weapons. They started with pistols and planned to move on to bigger weapons. The men earlier took these high-end pistols to Kashmir in batches,” a source said.
“These men are just foot soldiers who were given specific instructions by their handler,” Kushwaha said. “We are now trying to trace the channel through which these arms deals were being finalised. The arms dealer too is on our radar,” he added.
The police have also recovered four mobile phones from the men and claim that they contain ISIS videos and Whatsapp images of some maps and documents. “The phones will be sent for analysis,” an officer said.
Brother’s death encouraged him to take up jihad
Lone’s younger brother, Firdaus, was reportedly killed in an encounter with the security forces in January this year, following which he joined the militant group.
Firdaus, police said, was initially an operative of the Hizbul Mujahideen but later shifted to the ISJK. According to sources, Parvez was influenced by his brother but did not join the outfit till his death.
“Firdaus was highly radicalised and was an active member of the ISJK. He used to encourage Parvez to join him as well, but the latter never got involved in any operations,” a source said. “Parvez, however, was radicalised by Firdaus, who used to give him banned literature to read and made him watch ISIS videos.”
“After Firdaus was killed in an encounter, Parvez was enraged and wanted to avenge his brother’s death by attacking security forces. This is when he formally started working for the outfit,” he said.
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According to sources, Jamsheed was in touch with Abdullah Basith, 24, an alleged Islamic State terror operative and nephew of former SIMI president, Syed Salahuddin, arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) last month. He was allegedly working with his associates to create a new module in Hyderabad and planning attacks.
“Jamsheed was introduced to militancy by someone whose brother-in-law was highly radicalised and was a part of Hizbul. Slowly, Jamsheed, son of a police officer, started drifting and attending their meetings,” an officer said.