Death sentence to 7 ISIS-linked terrorists
A special NIA court in Lucknow has sentenced to death seven ISIS-linked terrorists, while awarding life imprisonment to an associate of theirs in a 2017 case related to various terror activities, including a bomb blast inside a train in Uttar Pradesh, an official said on Wednesday.
In Gujarat, another NIA special court awarded 10 years rigorous imprisonment to two brothers who were found involved in radicalising and recruiting people to carry out terror acts in the country in the name of global terror group Islamic State or ISIS, the official said.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) termed the judgments as “another milestone” in its tradition of evidence-based investigation and said “both cases relate to the online radicalisation of the accused in the name of ISIS, their motivation to commit violent ‘jihad’ and cause terror attacks in the country”.
Mohammad Faisal, Gauss Mohammad Khan, Mohammad Azhar, Atif Muzaffar, Mohammad Danish, Sayed Meer Hussain and Asif Iqbal alias ‘Rocky’ were awarded death penalty by the Lucknow court during pronouncing of judgement on Tuesday, while Mohammad atif alias ‘Atif Iraqi’ was sentenced to life imprisonment, a spokesperson of the federal agency said.
The official said the eight accused from Uttar Pradesh along with slain terrorist Mohammad Saifullah had set up a hideout in the Haji Colony area of Lucknow, and had prepared and tested some improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
They had tried to plant them at various locations in Uttar Pradesh, the spokesperson said, adding that investigations have led to the discovery of several photographs of the accused making IEDs, with weapons and ammunition and the ISIS flag.
“The group had reportedly collected illegal weapons, and explosives from various places. Atif and three others - Danish, Hussain and Saifulla - had been responsible for fabricating the IED that was planted in the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train that left 10 persons injured on March 7, 2017,” the spokesperson said.
The National Investigation Agency said the accused had come together to propagate the ISIS’s ideology and promote its activities in India.
