A suspected ISIS operative was arrested on Saturday at the Mumbai airport, police said today. 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 yesterday after he came from Saudi Arabia," senior UP police officer Anand Kumar told reporters in Lucknow today.

Abu Zaid, who was living in Riyadh, ran a social media group to allegedly radicalise young people in India and lure them to ISIS, Mr Kumar said.

A look-out notice was issued against Abu Zaid after his name cropped up during interrogation of the four suspected ISIS terrorists arrested by Uttar Pradesh's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in April this year.

The mobile records of the 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. According to the police, the suspects were planning terror attacks in different cities.

"They used to talk via an application on the internet and Zaid was their ideologue," Mr Kumar said, adding, "He will be brought to Lucknow on a transit remand and will be produced in the court. We will take him in police custody for interrogation."

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