Mumbai:
A Mumbai-based software engineer has been arrested for allegedly conspiring to blow up American establishments in Mumbai, including a school in suburban Bandra, sources have confirmed to NDTV. Anees Ansari, a 24-year-old, was allegedly motivated by Islamic State, the terror group which is causing havoc in Iraq.
Ansari, who works at a multi-national software company, was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad from his office in suburban Andheri. He has been remanded in police custody till October 26, an ATS official told the news agency Press Trust of India.
A senior Army Commander has recently warned against the IS threat in India, calling it a matter of "serious concern". (Read:
ISIS Threat a Concern For Security Agencies, Warns Top Army Commander in Kashmir)
In Kashmir, IS flags have surfaced a few times and several Indian youths, influenced by speeches of IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, have gone to join the "jihad" in Iraq, where US, UK and France are carrying on airstrikes against the terror group. (Read:
Four Hyderabad Students Planned to Fight With ISIS: Police)
Ansari allegedly sympathised with IS fighters and in his online conversations, described Americans as "tormentors". His chats - carried out on Facebook under a fake name - also hinted at a plot to target US establishments, including the school, the official said.
"Our team, which keeps a close watch on online posts, found that he had been chatting with two persons based in UK and Australia, who have been indoctrinated to believe in the extremist ideologies," said the official. The three had been talking for nearly two years and shared a lot of Jihadi material, videos and literature related to IS.
"His online interaction clearly indicated his ill-intentions but we are verifying how well he had prepared to execute the plot," the officer said.
Ansari - whose office job involved designing navigation maps - lives in suburban Kurla with his parents and two younger siblings. A month ago, he applied for a passport, which led the investigators to suspect that he planned to leave the country to support or join the ISIS, officials told Press Trust of India.
Ansari has been booked for criminal conspiracy and under sections of the Information Technology Act. The ATS has seized his computers and a mobile phone.