Grave Investigation

The National Investigation Agency earlier stated that they have arrested 12 suspects related to the terror attacks all over India. They added that these suspects, during the course of investigation, had mentioned about being trained in a jungle. After investigting in 12  parts of 6 more cities,  8 more terrorists were identified. These include, Syed Mujahid (33), a resident of Tumakuru, Karnataka; Mohammad Aleem (20) of Lucknow; Mohammed Obedullah Khan (33) and Abu Anas (24) of Hyderabad; Asif Ali (21), Muhammed Abdul Ahad (46) and Suhail Ahmed (23) of Bengaluru; and Imran Khan Pathan of Aurangabad.  

Unlike other suspects arrested for their alleged involvement with the Islamic State (IS), they were caught with explosives in large quantity. On interrogation, the members of this group confessed that they along with their leader in India, Mudabbir Sheikh, a resident of Mumbai had planned multiple attacks all over India. They added that they had met Sheikh and other members from different parts of the country on multiple occasions to plan the attacks in India  using applications such as Shareit and Trillian messenger’s chat options to communicate.

The Delhi Police and the NIA, during the course of their investigation also learnt that most of the terrorists captured were constantly in touch with a man called Shafi Armar alias Yusuf who runs the syndicate known as the Ansar-ul-Tawhid which is affiliated to the Islamic States and has former members of the Indian Mujahideen in its ranks. Bangladesh too has witnessed a few attacks in the recent past. If intelligence reports were to be believed, then these attacks at Bangladesh were too carried out by Islamic State sympathisers. This is to point that the IS threat is looming on India. It has been witnessed in the past that when IS workers were kept captivated, it led to destruction on a large scale. Fast track judgements and hearings are of utmost importance for this situation. 

While the NIA and Union Home Ministry remained sceptical about naming the group of terrorists as members of the IS, an official from the Ministry confirmed the news, adding that, “The Islamic State has a lot of traction in India, and it is using the dark web to recruit young men and women. They are operating at several levels, and Armar is one of the links here. We have reasonable information that Armar is based in Syria and is getting directions from the Islamic State to rope in men here.”