SHAGUN KAPIL By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: For Abdul Malik, who runs a ‘chaat’ shop in northeast Delhi’s Jafrabad, Anas Yunus is a shy boy, who mostly kept to himself but greeted him pleasantly whenever they met. On Wednesday, he was shocked to find out that the civil engineering student was arrested for being a part of the Islamic State-inspired module. Panic and shock gripped the residential area after five arrests, including Yunus, were made for planning to carry out blasts and attacks on top political leaders of the country.

“I cannot imagine Anas was planning something like this. For me, he was just a student who went about his day. We woke up around 2.30 am last night when we heard noises and saw several policemen entering the house. The force kept coming and going and they finally took him today evening,” said 30-year-old Rahil Khan, Yunus’ neighbour.

NIA and Delhi Police officials during a search operation in Jafrabad | Parveen Negi

The residents of the street, where the arrest happened, tried to keep people and media persons away since afternoon when the news broke out. “Our children and women are scared of the mood that is being created here since afternoon. People from other areas are assembling here and asking details. We had no idea this was happening here,” said another neighbour, who did not wish to be identified.

As per reports, Yunus was instrumental in procuring electrical items, alarm clocks, batteries, etc to be used in assembling bombs. “Police took around 20 cartons of material from his godown like iron parts, electrical material and some SIM cards,” said 23-year-old Shoaib, who witnessed the arrest. People in other areas of Jafrabad where similar arrests were made were tight-lipped about the raid.

Other than the five arrests claimed by the NIA, four other residents were detained for questioning and were released on Wednesday night, claimed their family members.

The hit list

The National Investigation Agency believes the module has foreign-based handler(s) but their identity and location is still being probed. The officials refused to comment on media reports citing inputs from other agencies involved in the operation that RSS headquarters and Delhi Police headquarters were also on the hit list.

