Ranchi: The Jharkhand Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and Delhi Police have conducted a joint operation against the Al-Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) module. The operation led to the arrest of Shahbaz Ansari from Senha village in Channho, Ranchi, on Thursday night. This follows a previous raid on August 16 last year, where the Jharkhand ATS arrested four individuals after raiding 16 locations in Ranchi, Hazaribagh, and Lohardaga.
Among those arrested during the earlier operation were Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed, the leader of the AQIS module, Faizan alias Munna from Lohsinghna in Hazaribagh, and Mo Rizwan and Mufti Rahmatullah from Channho, Ranchi.
Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed had been working as a radiologist at Medica Hospital in Ranchi. In response to questions about his arrest, Dr. Vijay Mishra, the medical director of Medica, stated that the hospital management had no prior knowledge of Dr. Ishtiaq’s involvement in such activities. Before working at Medica, Dr. Ishtiaq had practised in the Azad Nagar area of Mango, Jamshedpur.
Additionally, Altaf, a member of the AQIS module, was detained in Rajasthan’s Bhiwadi while undergoing weapon training. Altaf is the eldest son of Muslim Ansari, a resident of Kawkahap village in the Kudu block of Lohardaga. Two country-made carbines and an airgun were seized from his house in Kawkahap.
Delhi Police also detained six other suspects from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, including Altaf. According to a statement from Delhi Police, Dr. Ishtiaq, a key figure in the AQIS module, was allegedly planning to declare a ‘Khilafat’ within the country and carry out serious terrorist activities.