Crackdown On Terror Network: ATS, Police Raid Many Locations In Pune, 19 Detained

Pune: The state Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and Pune Police conducted raids in many locations of Maharashtra's Pune district and detained 19 suspects for further questioning, officials said on Thursday.

Acting on intelligence inputs about terror network, the search operations were launched around midnight and continued till dawn. Presently, the suspects are being interrogated, they added.

Most of the suspects were foreign nationals whose visas had expired and one was an officer bearer of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI). The ATS had been monitoring their movements for the last three days.

According to information provided by the ATS, searches were conducted at the houses and offices of 19 suspects in Pune's Pimpri Chinchwad, Kondhwa, Khadak, Khadki, Wanawadi and Bhosari areas throughout the night.

ATS and Pune Police had been focusing their investigation on the movement of the suspects, especially in the Kondhwa area, and succeeded in arresting three members of a banned terrorist organisation earlier. Interrogating the trio, a possible nationwide terrorist plot was foiled and it is being suspected that the terror links have become active in the area again.

A major operation was carried out in the Kondhwa area two years ago and police had arrested three suspects linked to ISIS along with bombs and drone manufacturing materials and other suspicious items. It was alleged that the suspects had conducted bomb tests in the forests of the Western Ghats. Since then, Kondhwa area is under the scanner of the investigating agencies.

In 2024, the ATS had busted an unauthorised telephone exchange and seized 3,788 SIM cards from the spot. It was suspected that terrorists used the exchange for communication. The dense population and labour settlements in the Kondhwa area make it convenient for suspects to hide, officials said.

The police investigation revealed that a network of Bangladeshi infiltrators and other suspects was active in this area.

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