New Delhi, Aug 22 (UNI) A suspected ISIS operative was arrested after an exchange of fire in Delhi's high security area of Dhaula Kuan on Friday night, police said here on Saturday.


The ISIS operative, who planned to carry out 'lone wolf fidayeen attacks' in crowded areas around August 15, was arrested from Ridge Road, after a brief exchange of fire.
Two pressure cooker Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and a semi-automatic pistol, along with four magazines, were recovered from him, Deputy Commissioner of Police Special cell, Pramod Singh Kushwah, told reporters here.


He was identified as 36-year-old Mohammed Mustakim Khan alias Abdul alias Abu Yusuf from Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh.

During questioning, he revealed that initially, his plan was to launch a strike around August 15 in the national capital. However, due to the heavy and intensified security checks, this became difficult.


He later planned to plant the IEDs in a heavy footfall area during this week as security arrangements would not be as tight as they were during the Independence Day celebrations.

On completion of this task, his next instructions were to launch a 'lone-wolf 'Fidayeen' strike,' but was yet to receive instructions on where and when to conduct the attacks.

The police official said the suspect was under their surveillance for about a year.

Mustakim also revealed during interrogation that he has been associated with ISIS for the past 10 years. He was also in direct contact with its commanders.

Earlier, his handler was Yusuf-Al-Hindi, who was killed in Syria. After Al-Hindi, Abu Hufaiza, ISKP from Khorasan, Afghanistan, became his handler. It was from Hufaiza that he learned how to make the IEDs.

Hufaiza had promised to call him to Khorasan and Mustakim had got passports of his wife and four children made. However, after Hufaiza was killed in a drone strike last year in Khorasan, his replacement instructed the suspect not to come to Afghanistan, but execute lone-wolf attacks, like other operatives of ISIS.

It was being verified whether the recovered IEDs had been made by Mustakim or procured by him from someone else. He claims to have made these on his own, somewhere around the month of December last year.
He also did a test run of the same at a graveyard in his village. The NSG Bomb Disposal Squad disposed of the IEDs at Buddha Jayanti Park in a 'controlled environment,' police said.
UNI APS-RB RJ 1942