Delhi cops’ past brush with white collar terror modules

The devastating blast near the iconic Red Fort that claimed 13 lives has often been termed as a white collar terror module, involving multiple medical professionals. However in the past, the Delhi Police Special Cell team had intercepted similar modules before they could inflict any harm.

In the month of September, the Special Cell, along with Jharkhand Anti-Terrorism Squad, arrested two suspected ISIS operatives.

Prime accused Ashhar Danish was arrested from Ranchi, while his associate Aftab was arrested from Delhi.

The police had recovered nitric acid, hydrochloric acid and many other chemicals and metals, used for making explosives, from Danish’s rented accommodation in Ranchi.

It was suspected that the duo was part of a plan to execute a terror activity in Delhi-NCR and was also believed to be in touch with a terror module operating from abroad.

Danish was postgraduate in English and an expert in making bombs.

In another crackdown in October this year, two people were arrested in suspected ISIS module.

The accused - Mohammad Adnan and Adnan Khan – were allegedly radicalised online by a Syria-based handler and were in the advanced stages of planning terror attacks on high-footfall public areas, including a South Delhi mall and a public park.

Mohammad Adnan was a diploma holder in Information Technology and had shifted to Delhi in 2023 following the transfer of his father Salim Khan, who worked as a driver at Doordarshan office in Etah.

Investigators said he began consuming radical material on the social media, which eventually drew him towards the ISIS. Operating from his father’s government accommodation in South Delhi’s Sadiq Nagar, Mohammad Adnan allegedly edited and distributed extremist videos online.

Similarly, Adnan Khan from Bhopal was pursuing chartered accountancy. His father works as an accountant and mother is a part-time actor.