Mumbai: A suspected ISIS operative was arrested on Saturday at Mumbai airport, police said on Sunday. Abu Zaid, a native of Azamgarh town in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly ran a terror network from Saudi Arabia.

“Abu Zaid, a suspected ISIS terrorist was arrested by the ATS team from Mumbai Airport on Saturday after he came from Saudi Arabia,” senior UP police officer Anand Kumar told reporters in Lucknow on Sunday.

Abu Zaid, who was living in Riyadh, ran a social media group to allegedly radicalise young people in India and lure them to ISIS, he said. A look-out notice was issued against Abu Zaid after his name cropped up during interrogation of four suspected ISIS terrorists arrested by Uttar Pradesh’s ATS in April.

Mobile records of suspects Umar alias Nazim, Ghazi Baba alias Muzammil, Mufti alias Faizan and Jakawan alias Eihtesham showed evidence against Zaid, who according to the police, was the ideologue of this group. 

The suspects were planning terror attacks in different cities. “They used to talk via an application on the internet and Zaid was their ideologue,” Kumar said, adding, “He will be brought to Lucknow on transit remand and produced in the court. We will take him in police custody for interrogation.”