ATS said that the name of Wajihuddin (34) cropped up during questioning with two ISIS suspects, Abdullah Arsalan (26) and Maaz Bin Tariq (25) on Monday.
The two were accused of allegedly planning terror activities across the state and are currently in six-day police custody remand of the ATS.
Special DG, law and order, Prashant Kumar said that the arrested accused Wajiuddin is associated with the banned terrorist organization ISIS and as per the instructions of his ISIS handler, he was conspiring to cause a major incident to fulfill his terrorist plans.
“To implement this, he was connecting people with terrorist organization ISIS and used to train innocents for jihad,” said Kumar.
Kumar added that Wajihuddin has obtained a PhD degree in Public Administration from AMU (Aligarh Muslim University) and used to make them connect to ISIS under the guise of SAMU (Students of Aligarh Muslim University).
“Action is being taken to bring the accused Wajihuddin and as per rules to UP and bring him to Lucknow on transit remand. Investigation is going on scanning the terrorist background of Wajihuddin and his related contacts and his terrorist activities,” the Special DG added.
ATS sources added that Wajihuddin was the mastermind and had driven Arsalan who is BTech in petroleum and chemical engineering from a private university and Tariq who was pursuing BCom through distance learning programme to ISIS.
Sources added that they were working to unearth the complete gang and their channel.
Sources said that ATS had got on the gang after the special cell of the Delhi Police had arrested Shahnawaz Alam and Rizwan Ashraf who were associated with the Students of Aligarh Muslim University (SAMS) and ISIS sympathisers last month.
Alam and Ashraf had disclosed that they were planning attacks in Ayodhya, Akshardham in New Delhi and Chabad House in Mumbai on October 2.
Based on their confession another member of the team Rizwan Ashraf, an engineer, was also arrested.
Ashraf was allegedly in touch with a foreign handler and had taken a pledge to join ISIS.
Later, the information was exchanged with other anti-terror agencies and UP ATS nabbed Abdullah Arsalan (26) and Maaz Bin Tariq (25).