3 Terror Suspects Planning Major Attack Nabbed 

Three suspected terrorists plotting a major strike were arrested on Thursday and some more persons detained in a joint operation by police teams of five states.

Raids were carried out this morning in Mumbra (Maharashtra), Jalandhar (Punjab), Narkatiaganj (Bihar), Bijnor and Muzaffarnagar (both in Uttar Pradesh) in a joint operation of the Delhi special cell, the ATS of UP and Maharashtra, and the police of Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Bihar.

The arrests have been made in Mumbai, Jalandhar in Punjab and Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh.

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) confirmed the arrest of one person, identified as Nazim Shamshad Ahmed (26) who hails from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh. He was nabbed from Mumbra township in Thane district adjoining Mumbai.

The police said six more people have been detained by the police team for questioning, Maharashtra ATS sources said nearly 12 were take into custody.

The operation was launched on the basis of a tip off that a terror group was being prepared for carrying out terrorist acts for which some active members were enrolling new members. Those arrested are suspected to be part of a module that was looking for potential recruits in Bihar, UP and Maharashtra.

"All those arrested are in the age group of 18 to 25 years and were living in different places like Mumbai, Jalandhar and UP. We have also found that they were definitely influenced by the material available on the internet," a police official said.

Investigations show that one of them wanted to finance the group and they were continuously communicating with each other about carrying out some major strike in the near future. But police and other agencies of different states with the help of surveillance made the arrests before they could carry out any such attack.