Bangladeshi among 8 arrested over terror plot in India

Indian law enforcement agencies have arrested eight individuals, including a Bangladeshi national, over an alleged plot to carry out a major terror attack, according to a report by NDTV.

The report said the suspects were allegedly acting with support from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and a Bangladesh-based extremist group. Six of the accused — Mizanur Rahman, Mohammad Shabat, Umar, Mohammad Liton, Mohammad Shahid and Mohammad Ujjal — were arrested from garment factories in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu. The remaining two were detained in West Bengal.

Authorities alleged that the suspects used fake national identity cards to conceal their identities. Eight mobile phones and 16 SIM cards were recovered during the operation. They are being handed over to Delhi Police for further investigation.

Earlier reports suggested that Pakistan-based militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba had been planning attacks using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) targeting key religious sites in Delhi, including areas around the Red Fort and Chandni Chowk.

Security has been tightened across several regions in India following recent incidents involving explosions and the recovery of explosives.

Sources said the alleged attack was being planned in retaliation for the February 6 suicide bombing at a mosque in Islamabad, which left 31 people dead and more than 160 injured. The Islamic State (IS) had claimed responsibility for that attack.

About three months earlier, on November 10, a car bomb exploded near Delhi’s Red Fort, killing 12 people and injuring around two dozen others. According to NDTV, the blast occurred in an explosives-laden vehicle near the Red Fort Metro station. The driver, identified as Umar Mohammad alias Umar un Nabi, was killed at the scene. He was reportedly a doctor at Al-Falah University in Faridabad.

In a separate development, security agencies had earlier recovered approximately 2,900 kilograms of explosives from the Faridabad area in Haryana, about 50 kilometres from Delhi.

In light of these incidents, security has been tightened across several parts of India.