Delhi Police have arrested a 32-year-old man from Haryana's Mewat district, suspected to be a key operative of al Qaeda who allegedly received arms training in Pakistan, making it the fifth arrest in its ongoing operation against the terror outfit.
"The accused, Abdul Sami, was arrested by Delhi Police's Special Cell from Nuh town in Mewat yesterday. He was brought here and produced before a court which remanded him in police custody till February 1," Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep said on Monday.
Sami, a native of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, was allegedly mentored by Abdul Rahman, a madrassa cleric who was arrested from Jagatpur area of Cuttack in Odisha, in December by a Special Cell team, said a senior police official.
Rahman's arrest was the second in the ongoing operation. So far the police have identified three persons whom Rahman had inducted in al Qaeda's module in the Indian sub-continent and sent for training.
While Sami has been arrested, the other two – identified as Abu Sufian and Umar Hyderabadi -- are still believed to be in Pakistan, said the official.
He further said, Sami left for Dubai in January 2014, he stayed there for a month before moving to Karachi. From there, he went to Mansehra, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, where he received training in handling AK 47 and light machine guns.
Sami's movements were being coordinated by a handler, identified as Yusuf, from Pakistan.
During interrogation, it had earlier emerged that Yusuf was also in touch with Mohammed Asif, who is believed to be one of the founding members and the head (amir) of AQIS's motivation, recruitment and training wing and Abdul Rahman, the official said.
Asif's was the first arrest in the operation. He was nabbed from Seelampur in northeast Delhi, followed by the arrests of Rahman and alleged financier of the module, Zafar Masood, arrested from mohalla Deepa Sarai in UP's Sambhal district in December 2015.
On January 6, the Special Cell had arrested Maulana Anzar Shah, a cleric from Bangalore, for alleged links with AQIS. He was allegedly asked provide logistical support whenever the need arose, police said.
They were all booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
It was in January 2015 that Sami, who was a trained electrician, returned to India via Sharjah and Kathmandu. He then went to his home at Jamshedpur, but soon left without any disclosure of his whereabouts.
However, the police have not yet been able to trace any money trail with regard to Sami, said an official in Special Cell adding that two more youths from Jamshedpur are also under their scanner and they are believed to be close to Sami.
"Sami is suspected to have arrived in India with some plans. It is also possible that he is involved in the planning of some high-profile attacks in the country. For details on all that, he is to be subjected to intensive interrogation," the official said.
AQIS was floated by al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahari himself in September 2014 following a meeting somewhere in Afghanistan-Pakistan region which reportedly had in its quorum the entire Grand Council (Arabian Shura) of al-Qaeda, including al-Zawahiri's son-in-law.
Despite several Indians being present at the training camp, Maulana Asim Umar alias Sanaul Haq and Mohammed Asif are believed to be the only Indians present in the council, police said.
After Umar was anointed the chief, it is believed that some unexpected visitors met him, including Indian Mujahideen chief Riyaz Bhatkal, who is still at large, and other senior IM commanders like Baba Sajid, who was recently reported to have been killed in Syria, police said.
Asif was Umar's chosen candidate and, with the help of his deputy Qasim, Umar had contacted Asif through a social networking site, a year before he left for Tehran on a 'ziyarat' visa, exclusively meant for visiting a holy shrine in Tehran.
Umar, Asif and Qasim are all natives of Sambhal in UP.
The police are also yet to verify whether Sami was also in direct touch at some point with Umar, Asif and Qasim, and whether he too had attended the Grand Council, police added.
