In an fearless counter-intelligence operation, unrivalled in its scope and scale, Indian security agencies penetrated an Islamic State ring to foil a bid by an IS Afghan suicide bomber to strike New Delhi.
The operation contained the Indian “plant” supplying the IS operative with explosives without triggers and even arranging for his accommodation in the capital.
The arrest happened in New Delhi around September 2017 by by Indian agencies.
The IS operative lived in New Delhi who joined an engineering college, was flown to Afghanistan days after he was arrested and is, at present, understood to be in custody at a key US military base in Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, Dubai and New Delhi an 18-month-long surveillance operation provided intelligence that a group of 12 IS operatives were being sent after training in Pakistan to carry out bomb attacks in the region.
One of them was given New Delhi as his target for a suicide attack who is an Afghan national in his mid-twenties and the “son of a wealthy businessman.”
Information received that as part of his undercover “mission,” he got himself admitted to a private engineering college on the outskirts of the capital, along the Delhi-Faridabad highway. Initially, he lived in the college hostel but, sources said, he subsequently rented a ground-floor apartment in Lajpat Nagar.
Also Read: Afghanistan: Suicide bombing kills 19 in Jalalabad, 10 belong to Sikh community
There is also the information that IS operation began with sleuths of the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) tracking a suspicious transfer of $50,000 by individuals under their watch from Dubai to a location in Afghanistan and then linking the dots with intelligence shared by US about New Delhi being a possible target in the near future for an IS strike.
The Indian operative was the one who located the Lajpat Nagar safehouse for the Afghan, though initially a third-floor place was arranged, this was later changed to a ground-floor apartment.
Sources also reveled that the IS saboteur visited the Delhi Airport, Ansal Plaza mall, a Vasant Kunj mall as well as the South Extension market, may be among other places in New Delhi, as reconnaissance for the strike.
To add to this which is even more shocking, the consignment of explosives and improvised devices was delivered to the Afghan by the Indian without any triggers as the ultimate intrigue.
But his confessions have helped US forces strike at many Taliban targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Also Read: Afghanistan attack: Week after attack, IS claims responsibility