The Uttar Pradesh special task force, in a joint operation with the Delhi Police, arrested nine Islamic State suspects from Jalandhar, Mumbai and Bijnor on Thursday.
The arrests were made after the UP ATS conducted raids with the special cell of Delhi Police, Maharashtra ATS, and Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab Police.
“The police have arrested three suspects from Mumbai, Jalandhar and Bijnor and six others are being questioned,” said UP ATS in a statement.
ADG (law and order) Daljeet Singh Choudhary said that police have evidence against four such people and that all are self-motivated and radicalized.
“They were not in liaison with any group,” Choudhary said.
“They are misguided youths, can be admitted to the mainstream after counselling,” Choudhary added.
According to reports, the three arrested are suspected to be part of a ISIS module that were looking for potential recruits in Bihar, UP and Maharashtra. Six more people have been detained by the security forces.
Choudhary also said that during the searches, no incriminating evidence was found. “But it can be called a possible criminal conspiracy.”
Last month, a man named Saifullah, who was allegedly linked to the blast in a Bhopal-Ujjain train, was killed by police after a 12-hour stand-off in Lucknow.
The “self-radicalised” ISIS suspect was influenced by the extremist ideology and drew inspiration from banned ISIS websites. A huge cache of arms and ammunition, along with plenty of ISIS literature in Urdu and in English, were recovered from the building where Saifullah had taken shelter and was killed later in the gunfight.
Earlier this month, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the Lok Sabha that over 50 radicalised Indian youth have crossed over to the “other side”.
The issue of radicalisation is not limited to Jammu and Kashmir but other states as well and the entire world too, she said in the Lok Sabha.
She said the Centre has already launched an anti-radicalisation programme with states to ensure that the youths are not misled. The minister credited the “Indian ethos and culture for the minimal damage radicalisation has caused” in India.
