New Delhi, Dec 26: A country-made rocket launcher, 12 pistols, 100 alarm clocks, 100 mobile phones, 135 SIM cards and laptops were among the other things recovered by the National Investigation Agency after busting an ISIS-inspired terror module on Wednesday.
Inspector General of Police (NIA) Alok Mittal said the module was planning attacks on important political and security offices in Delhi.
The agency said the "highly-radicalised module" was completely self-funded and no criminal antecedent of its members had surfaced so far.
"It was a self-funded group. They stole gold ornaments from their homes and sold it to fund their activities. They were planning to detonate a remote-controlled bomb or a fidayeen kind of attack," Mittal said.
Mittal said that questioning of those nabbed would reveal vital information about the module, their plans and handlers.
The arrested suspects also tried to make bullet-proof fidayeen vest. It was recovered from Amroha.
Those arrested include the alleged mastermind, 29-year-old Mohammed Sohail, a 'mufti', or a Muslim legal expert empowered to give rulings on religious matters, from Amroha in western Uttar Pradesh, an engineering student of a private university in Noida and a third-year graduation student in humanities as well as two welders, he said.
Mittal added that the agency found a video where Sohail is demonstrating how to complete a bomb circuit.
During the searches, conducted across 17 locations, the agency recovered a huge cache of handmade weapons, including a yet to be tested rocket launcher, material for suicide vests, 12 locally made pistols, hundreds of live rounds of bullets, 100 mobiles and 135 SIM cards, he disclosed.
The agency also recovered Rs 7.5 lakh in cash and 25 kilograms of bomb making ingredients - potassium nitrate, potassium chlorate, sugar paste and sulphur.
Giving details of the initial investigation by the agency, Mittal said the suspects had done a reconnaissance of vital government installations and planned to target political personalities and other important people.
"The level of preparation showed they were planning to carry out fidayeen attacks in near future," he said.
According to investigations, the module was founded about three-four months ago by Sohail who brought all its members together. They remained in touch through data-based messaging applications WhatsApp and Telegram.
Surveillance of suspected members of the group started after the agency got inputs about their plans.
Seeing their alarming pace of progress, the agency decided to bust the group with help from Delhi Police's Special Cell and Uttar Pradesh Police's Anti-Terrorist Squad.
The NIA believes the module has foreign-based handler(s) but their identity and location are still being probed.
"So far, no criminal record of any of the arrested members of the module has surfaced. It looks like they were self-trained and self-motivated through internet," Mittal said.
The officials refused to comment on media reports quoting other agencies involved in the operation that RSS headquarters and Delhi Police headquarters were also on the hit list.
"They (other agencies) can say whatever they feel like. But being the investigating agency of this case... we cannot make any such claim unless we have some corroborative material to support it," a senior NIA officer said requesting anonymity.
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