The recent arrest of Indian Mujahideen co-founder Abdul Subhan Qureshi is proving to be valuable to the Delhi Police after it was able to make a second arrest today in the form of Ariz Khan aka Junaid.
Khan is suspected to be involved in at least five bomb blasts carried out by Indian Mujahideen in the past, including those at Delhi, Mumbai and Goa.
He is also suspected to have been involved in the Batla House encounter that took place in September 2008.
The shootout happened in the Batla House locality in Jamia Nagar, Delhi. The encounter saw the arrest of two IM terrorists and two others were killed.
Ariz Khan, who has now been arrested, was the only one who escaped on that day.
His arrest is the result of information provided by IM founder Abdul Subhan Qureshi after he was arrested late last month.
Qureshi, who co-founded the IM a decade ago, had been out of action for the last 2-3 years, spending his time in Saudi Arabia. However, seeing the ‘deplorable’ condition of his organization, Qureshi, an engineer by profession, decided to come back to India after tying up some funds to revive the organization while in the Gulf.
The IM was created largely out of former members of SIMI or the Students’ Islamic Movement of India.
SIMI used to provide its cadres training in using arms, swimming, rock climbing, psychological warfare and in creating Molotov cocktails at camps across the country.
The Delhi Police will release further details of today’s arrest at a press conference in the afternoon.