Eight men and a 17-year-old boy have been arrested from Maharashtra's Mumbra, Thane and Aurangabad over alleged terrorist links. The arrests were made by the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) over the alleged involvement of the suspects with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The ATS was investigating the presence of sleeper cells in the state ahead of Republic Day. The arrests were based on conducting criminal conspiracy and unlawful activities in the country.
The suspects arrested are Mohsin Khan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Salman Khan, Zahid Shaikh, Fahad Shah, Zamen Kutepadi, Taki Khan, Mohammad Mazhar Shaikh and the boy.
During the raids, the ATS squad seized various explosives, chemicals, mobile phones, hard disk drives, SIM cards, acid bottles and sharp weapons.
The ATS sleuths had been trailing the group for several weeks after gathering information over their links with the terror outfit and activities from reliable sources.
When the group was likely to get involved in terror acts, the ATS formed about a dozen teams and carried out searches at five different locations in Mumbra, Thane and Aurangabad late on Tuesday.
