'IM planned to attack market in festive season'

Terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen had chalked out in great detail a plan to carry out multiple blasts at a busy marketplace in Delhi during the upcoming festive season, sources in Delhi Police have revealed. 

The outfit had also allegedly created an “instructional manual” for triggering multiple blasts for its men.

The documents which allegedly contain the alleged details were revealed from the laptop seized from 27-year-old Ajaz Sheikh, the suspected IM operative. 

Sheikh was arrested on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday from outside Saharanpur Railway Station in western Uttar Pradesh by Delhi Police’s Special Cell.

The sources said several Microsoft Word files have been retrieved from the laptop. They allegedly contain details about the targets, the timings, the materials to be used and other important instructions for its men, an intelligence officer revealed. 

“It seems that the operatives would be handed over these copies along with other provisions before the attacks,” the official said.

The sources said the investigators were surprised by how precise the details on the future attacks were. They suspect this is only a part of a more elaborate plan that was to be executed in Delhi during the upcoming festive season but now stands foiled with Sheikh’s arrest.

Sheikh, who was allegedly the logistics man and hawala router for the banned terrorist organisation, had fled to Nepal and had been hiding there ever since the arrest of the organisation’s leader Yaseen Bhatkal last year, Delhi Police’s Special Cell had claimed on Saturday. 

“He was recently told by his Pakistan-based handlers Riyaz Bhatkal and Mohsin Chowdhary to reach Delhi. He was specifically instructed to do break journeys on his way to Delhi to avoid being traced. He was told to reach Delhi via Lucknow, Moradabad and Saharanpur. He was told he would get further orders once he was in Delhi,” a senior officer of the Special Cell said.

Police are now trying to find about the people he met in Lucknow and Moradabad during his trip. 

They also inted to find out  where  and for how many days he stayed in these towns.