NEW DELHI: A chargesheet was filed by Delhi Police Special Cell on Wednesday against a Pakistani man arrested last October with a large cache of arms and ammunition, including an AK-47 rifle with 60 rounds, two Chinese Star pistols with 50 rounds and a hand grenade.
Calling him the coordinator for sleeper cells planted in India by Pakistan’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, the chargesheet gave details of how the suspect, Ashraf Ali (40), made visits abroad to meet his handlers, had a role in the conspiracy of the Delhi High Court blasts of 2011 and carried out killings in J&K from 2009 to 2017.
The weapons were found buried on the Yamuna floodplain in Kalindi Kunj. Ali was staying in two rented accommodations at Shastri Park and Turkman Gate.
Ali, a native of Narowal district in Pakistan’s Punjab, was heading a sleeper cell after infiltrating the country in 2004. He was based in J&K between 2009 and 2017 and spent the rest of the time shuttling between Delhi and other states under the assumed identity of Ali Ahmed Noori.
“When the identity of the terrorist was established, it was revealed that he was an active part of a sleeper cell node that had carried out many attacks and espionage activities in India over several years. He had managed to obtain Indian identities and was living in Delhi under the cover of a peer maulana,” stated the chargesheet.
The chargesheet added that ISI used Ali to carry out targeted killings and reactivated him last year to carry out one final strike. The plan was to cause mass casualties around Dussehra or Diwali, while firing indiscriminately on crowds in markets.
The 300-page legal document, with annexures running into around 2,000 pages, also shed light on Ali’s involvement in the 2011 Delhi High Court blasts. Police found evidence of him having conducted a recce just before the blasts. During interrogation, Ali identified one of the suspects from a bundle of photographs. This suspect, Ghulam Sarwar, was also a Pakistani, who purportedly fled to Pakistan after the blast. Sarwar was infiltrated into India through the same channel as Ali.
Passport analysis revealed that Ali had gone to Thailand to meet his ISI handlers, after which he was directed to shift back to Delhi and lie low until further orders. He joined a Pakistan-based NGO named Dawat-e-Islami. He visited Saudi Arabia in 2013, allegedly for Haj. Besides, police found evidence of his frequent visits to Nepal, which Ali was not able to explain. Police also submitted the forensic analysis report of Ali’s two phones, apart from his forged passport and the statements of witnesses.
