According to police, 23-year-old Vijay ‘Shooter’, who hails from Mirzapur, was arrested from Pune on May 14. Based on the information he provided, his associate Nitish Paswan, 23, was nabbed from Sahibganj on May 17.

Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Anil Shukla said, “Vijay was in regular contact with members of the Shahzad Bhatti network operating from Pakistan and Dubai. Vijay was tasked to carry out various criminal and terror activities in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and UP. He was also tasked to recruit youth for executing terror activities in Delhi-NCR.”

Nitish and Vijay, police said, confirmed that there were modules in Delhi and Mumbai which were planning attacks in both the cities, and had already done a recce of multiple bridges in Mumbai and the Dadar station.

Based on Vijay’s disclosures, two men — Tauqeer Sheikh and Arbaz Khan — were nabbed from Mumbai last Wednesday.

“Both were in contact with ISI handlers Yawar Khan and Munna Jhingada. They were recruited by one Huzaifa from Mumbai, who is absconding and was working at the behest of Shahzad Bhatti, Yawar and Munna. They were tasked to carry out grenade attacks and firing at vital installations, security establishments and police personnel in Delhi and Mumbai,” Shukla said.

Arbaz and Sheikh also told police they had prepared a team to attack security personnel and government buildings in Delhi. On Saturday morning, police nabbed three men from Punjab who were headed to Chattarpur in Delhi.

A police officer said, “All the three accused, Harvinder Singh, Gagandeep Singh and Manjeet Singh, are residents of Punjab. They were intercepted on the Mehrauli-Badarpur Road around 1 am today and a heavy cache of arms and ammunition, including grenades and automatic pistols, were recovered.”

Police said they also arrested a Nepali national, Ang Kami Lama, in the early hours of Saturday. He had been tasked by Munna Jhingada to arrange a hideout for the accused in Delhi and fund their activities.

Shukla said, “Ang Kami Lama was lodged in a Thailand jail from 2001 to 2018 in a narcotics case. There he came in contact with co-inmates Aizaz Rasool and Md. Salim alias Munna Jhingada, both from Pakistan. After coming out of jail, Lama maintained contact with Jhingada.”

Senior officers said the module pointed to the re-activation of the Dawood network.

The arrests come 20 days after security personnel were alerted about the possibility of a terror attack in the Capital. Intelligence inputs, sources said, had hinted at suicide attacks and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) mounted on vehicles.

Among the possible targets were the BJP  headquarters on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg and other crowded areas in Central Delhi, according to sources.

In April, the Special Cell arrested 11 people following raids conducted across Delhi and Punjab. Police recovered weapons, surveillance equipment, and solar powered CCTV cameras installed near government establishments.