A wanted terrorist, a member of the Pune module of the ISIS, has been arrested by the Delhi Police, officials said on Friday.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of the Delhi Police's Special Cell arrested Rizwan Abdul Haji Ali, a resident of Daryaganj here, from a location near Ganga Baksh Marg at the Delhi-Faridabad border at around 11 pm on Thursday, the officials said.
A .30-bore pistol, three live cartridges and two mobile phones were seized from his possession, they added.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had declared a reward of Rs 3 lakh for information leading to Ali's arrest.
It is suspected that Ali was conducting reconnaissance for a possible attack on some VIPs based in Delhi-NCR, an officer said, adding that he is being interrogated.
The officer said agencies were searching for the wanted terrorist for the last year and a half, after he fled from the custody of the Pune Police.
Teams of the Delhi Police, Maharashtra Police and NIA have so far arrested seven members of the ISIS' Pune module, including Ali, official sources said.
Last year, two separate cases under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) were lodged by the Delhi Police's Special Cell and Mumbai Police against the members of the module for their alleged involvement in anti-India activities, the officer said.
In October last year, three members of the ISIS module -- Mohammad Shahnawaz, Mohammad Rizwan and Arshad Warsi -- were arrested by the Special Cell from Delhi, Lucknow and Moradabad respectively.
The NIA had announced a reward of Rs 3 lakh for information leading to Shahnawaz's arrest.
According to a statement from the Delhi Police, in 2015, Ali got inclined towards radical ideology through social media. In 2017, he met Shahnawaz, a Jharkhand native who had come to Delhi's Shaheen Bagh for studies, and they became good friends gradually.
Shahnawaz and Ali wanted to go for Hijrat and to collect funds for the purpose, Shahnawaz got involved in criminal activities.
In 2018, Ali got connected with an ISIS handler over a social media application. Since then, he and his associates were deeply involved in the ISIS ideology and were making plans and preparations for committing terror acts, the statement said.
In April 2022, Ali and Shahnawaz came in touch with Imran and Yunus Saaki and started collecting materials for the preparation of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The sources said the module has been active in Pune for the last year and a half.
The members of the module are allegedly recruited online by Pakistan-based handlers identified as Farahtulla Gauri and Shahid Faisal, the sources said.
The Pune Police arrested Imran and Saaki last year, they said, adding that the two men were found travelling in a stolen vehicle.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)