Arrests by NIA in Poll Season Do Raise Suspicion, Says Mehbooba Mufti After 'IS-Module' Busted in Delhi

New Delhi: Just days after the NIA arrested 10 alleged members of an Islamic State-inspired module in Delhi, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti raised doubts on the manner of arrest and said associating those arrested with the dreaded terrorist group is "premature".

The NIA registered the case against main accused Mufti Mohammed Suhail and his nine associates after the Central government received “credible information" that a group of pro-IS individuals had floated a terror outfit and was preparing to target places of importance in and around Delhi.

On Wednesday, the accused were arrested by the NIA in a joint operation with the Delhi police’s Special Cell and the Anti-Terrorist Squad of Uttar Pradesh.

"Arrests by NIA in the election season do raise suspicion, especially after the urban Naxal case seems to be falling apart. National security is best served by being just and inclusive, not suspicious of an entire community (sic)," said Mufti in a tweet.

She further added: "National security is supreme. But declaring suspects as terrorists on the basis of Sutli bombs, associating with the dreaded IS is premature. It has already devastated their lives and families. NIA must learn from earlier episodes in which the accused were acquitted after decades (sic)."

Mufti Mohammed Suhail alias Hazrath, who has been identified as the group's founder by the NIA, married in August last year. He had been working as a cleric at a madrasa on Hakim Mahtab Uddin Hashmi Road in Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, said one of his uncles.

Relatives of people arrested in connection with the terror plot seemed clueless why their loved ones were being treated as "terrorists".

The relatives of most of the accused said their children are "innocent" and were living a normal life until now.

The NIA has said the suspects were planning suicide attacks and serial blasts targeting politicians and government installations in Delhi and other parts of north India.

A locally made rocket launcher, material for suicide vests and 100 alarm clocks, to be used as timers, mobile phone circuits, batteries, 51 pipes, steel containers, wires, 91 mobile phones and 134 SIM cards were seized during the searches in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

Five of the accused have been arrested from Amroha and five from two areas in Delhi.