ATS said 31-year-old diploma holder and his aide, arrested for making an IED, wanted to execute the first lone wolf attack in India by bombing Aurangabad and Nanded police headquarters
Naseer Chaus and Shahid Khan, the two men arrested from Parbhani on July 15, were plotting to bomb the Nanded and Aurangabad police headquarters, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad has said.
Also read: Youth with suspected ISIS links held with 1 kg explosives at Parbhani
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An ATS source close to the investigation told mid-day that the two were plotting the attack during Ramzan but developed cold feet and decided to launch the attack during Ganeshotsav.
Chaus and Khan were arrested with an improvised explosive device in their possession.
The ATS had earlier said that they got the know-how from the Islamic State’s Science Wing via secure instant messengers like Telegram and Calculator. The two allegedly sourced the material for the explosives from Hyderabad Nanded and Pune.
Also read: How black tape helped Parbhani ISIS sympathisers evade investigators
The ATS source told mid-day on Tuesday that the two were funded via the hawala route.
The sources said that the Nanded Unit of the ATS on Monday recovered a stolen motorcycle, which the two were allegedly planning to use for one of the blasts.
The official told mid-day that Chaus, a failed civil engineering student from Parbhani, wanted to go to Iraq to fight alongside the IS forces, but was dissuaded by a person known only as Farookh to stay in India.
“This person indoctrinated them saying they could become the first to carry out a lone wolf attack in India,” the official told mid-day.
The official said Farookh had asked Chaus to get more people to join him and open several accounts on secure applications and websites.
Also read: Radicalised Parbhani man was to strike in Ramzan
Chaus then started communicating with several ISIS ‘commanders’ in Iraq, who guided him to make bombs with cheap and easily available material. They planned to use a car remote as a trigger for the bomb. They used material like charcoal, urea, sulfur, potassium nitrate and matchstick powder.
Bike recovered
The ATS said that on Monday, a friend of Chaus approached the ATS unit of Nanded and told them that he learnt about the arrests only recently and told the cops that Chaus had left a stolen motorcycle with him. ATS officials who recovered the bike said it was likely that Chaus planned to use it to plant the IED.
“They wanted the first such attack to be on the police, who they claim they have declared a war on,” said the official.
The two are presently in the custody of Nanded unit of ATS.
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