‘To establish caliphate’—Delhi cops arrest welder, Class 12 student, two others ‘part of terror module’

Delhi Police have arrested 4 men from 3 states, say they were planning to establish caliphate in India and were preparing IEDs, recceing ‘Red Fort and India Gate’.

Delhi Police Special Cell has arrested ‘radicalised youth’ from the states of Maharashtra, Odisha and Bihar | ANI video grab

New Delhi: Four persons—an auto-mechanic, a Class 12 student, a security guard-cum-delivery worker, and a plumber—have been arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell for allegedly forming a radicalised module aimed at establishing a caliphate in the Indian Subcontinent. Police claim they were involved in recruitment, propaganda and preparations for potential terror activities.

In a press statement Saturday, Delhi Police said the four were arrested from Maharashtra, Odisha and Bihar, and have been identified as Mosaib Ahmad alias Sonu alias Kalam, a resident of Thane; Mohammed Hammad, a resident of Mumbai; Sheikh Imran, a resident of Bhubaneswar; and Mohammad Sohail, a resident of Katihar.

Police said the arrested individuals believed in the emergence of a “Khurasan-based lashkar (army)” and “were preparing to join this lashkar to participate in Ghazwa-e-Hind (conquest of India), besides radicalising others”. The police also claim to have recovered material for preparation of IEDs from one of the accused.

According to the police statement, the accused were admins and members of various closed groups on encrypted social media platforms, and were engaged in radicalising and recruiting others “for establishing a caliphate and Islamic state through jihad”.

Two members of the module, the police said, were in the process of collecting locally sourced material for preparing a remote-controlled IED.

One member of the module was, meanwhile, allegedly exhorting others to collect weapons and explosives. The said member had shared his bank account and QR code details on social media for crowd-funding in support of jihad, the police added.

The fourth member, the police said, promised to arrange arms training for the other members of the module and had asked the others to send money for the same.

The four individuals arrested by the police | By special arrangement

“He had visited various sensitive installations, including the Red Fort in Delhi during December 2025, and had posted a photo of the Red Fort with a black flag atop to radicalise others,” DCP (Special Cell) Praveen Kumar Tripathi stated. Last November, a car explosion near the Red Fort in New Delhi had resulted in 13 deaths and over 30 injuries. A panicked doctor, suspected to be part of a terror module, was driving the explosives-laden vehicle.

The four accused

According to the police, accused Mosaib originally hails from Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh and has studied up to Class 10. He worked as a welder, auto-mechanic and auto-electrician in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Currently, Mosaib was working at a private automobile workshop in Maharashtra’s Thane. “Mosaib was part of multiple online groups where discussions related to lashkar of Mahdi (a messianic figure in Islamic belief) and jihad were held,” said the DCP.

Mosaib, the police said, assisted co-accused Hammad by opening “the circuit of a remote-controlled toy car for IED-making and sharing its image within a closed group”.

Hammad, according to the police, was pursuing Class 12 studies through correspondence. It was around January 2026 that he joined the closed group, which also had other active members. “In the group, discussions were held on jihad and Ghazwa-e-Hind. Pictures of ball bearings, nails, remote-controlled toy car and boxes as materials for preparation of IED were shared in the closed group,” the DCP added.

Hammad allegedly handed material and instructions over to Mosaib who, being a mechanic by profession, was tasked with assembling the IED.

Regarding the third accused Sheikh Imran, the police said he too has studied up to Class 10, and was working as a security guard and delivery boy.

In 2024, he began listening to the takreer or orations of modern religious scholars and preachers such as Tariq Jameel, Israr Ahmed, Zakir Naik, etc, and gradually developed radical beliefs, according to the police.

Imran came across Hammad and Mosaib on social media, and had also created a closed group where discussions centred on “jihad, khilafat and Ghazwa-e-Hind; he even discussed targeting the Ram Mandir, Parliament and military installations,” the police have alleged.

Imran visited Delhi in December 2025 for recce of the Red Fort and India Gate, the police said, adding that he had promised his associates that he would arrange arms training and physical training, including horse riding, for them in Odisha and had asked them to contribute funds for the same.

Sohail, the fourth person arrested, is a plumber by profession and has also studied up to Class 10, according to the police. They said he too was influenced by the takreers of Israr Ahmed and had created multiple social media accounts and “exhorted youth in the name of jihad”.

In March 2026, he allegedly incited followers of his social media group to collect weapons and explosives for Ghazwa-e-Hind. He also shared his bank account details and QR code to collect money in the name of jihad, the police said. An FIR has been registered against the accused under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)