Islamic State: Arrest of ‘IS operatives’ in Gujarat raises concerns in Delhi | Delhi News

New Delhi: The arrest of four foreign terrorists in Gujarat has set alarm bells ringing in the intelligence establishment in Delhi following the arrest of four foreign terrorists in Gujarat. The men were Islamic State (IS) fidayeens from Sri Lanka who had pledged allegiance to slain IS chief Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. The intelligence-based operation marks the first instance of Islamic State sending in “foreign fighters” to India. This, sources said, was a new experiment indicating a murky plot. Sleuths suspect there could be a second module and have launched a manhunt, sources added.With polling to be held in five days, Delhi is on alert and surveillance is being stepped up outside Jewish establishments in the city which were also on the target of the arrested quartet. A few months ago, a few operatives of the Pune-based IS module were arrested from Delhi. The arrested men were engineers from Jamia Nagar in Delhi who had allegedly joined IS to carry out serial blasts in India. Some members of the module are still absconding, sources said.The men arrested in Ahmedabad were being handled by an entity named Abu Pakistani. They had been given grid locations of their targets. Intelligence sleuths are probing if Pak-based recruiter Farhatullah Ghori was handling this module. Ghori has been on the Indian agencies’ crosshairs after investigation into multiple “ISIS-inspired” modules busted in Delhi and other places in the last three years led the sleuths to him. They have found evidence of Ghori, an ISI stooge, masquerading as an IS recruiter.Recently, the ISI and Pakistan’s deep state launched Ghori, the elusive terrorist, in the public domain and released his first-ever video in which he called for war against India. The mastermind of the 2002 Akshardham Temple attack in Gujarat, Ghori was long forgotten by the Indian intelligence agencies until 2109 when he was found active on Telegram and other encrypted chat applications and releasing a string of videos to brainwash youths.The Pakistan’s Ghori connection has also become a focus area with the seizure of around 20 rounds from the operatives that had FATA (federally administered tribal areas/Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) written on them. One of the arrested operatives, Mohammad Nusrath (33), also holds a valid visa of Pakistan. The other three have been identified as Mohammed Nafran (27), Mohammed Faris (35) and Mohammed Rasdeen (43). The quartet were previously affiliated with a Sri Lankan radical militant outfit named National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), which was banned by the Sri Lankan govt in April 2019 after the Easter bombings.