Islamic State (IS) members were planning to carry out serial blasts at Deva Shareef—the shrine of the most-revered Sufi saint, Waris Ali Shah in India on March 27, The Hindustan Times reported.
The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) found details of an elaborate plan to attack the shrine from a laptop used by one of the cell’s members who was picked up after a blast on a passenger train in India on Tuesday.
Two youths — Faizan and Imran of Kanpur — were picked up after the blast, another member, Saifullah, was neutralised in Lucknow while a mobile shop owner Azhar of Kanpur escaped.
Sources told Hindustan Times that said the bombs used in the explosion were a part of a ‘trial’ to test the efficacy of the explosives that the IS cell had planned to use at the Sufi shrine.
According to sources, apart from a map of the shrine, a laptop with some videos of attacks on shrines in Pakistan was recovered from Faizan’s possession.
A suicide bomber had struck the crowded Sufi shrine Shahbaz Lal Qalandar in Pakistan killing at least 75 people in February. The Islamic State had claimed responsibility for the blast.
During interrogation, Faizan told the ATS that the eight-member IS cell was planning to replicate the attack on Deva Shareef. The accused also claimed to have visited the shrine to conduct recce several times with his brother Imran.
The ATS technical team that is looking into the contents of the laptop, said the emails and chats would help them to identify the cell’s handlers both in India and overseas, like in Syria and Bangladesh.
