The Pune Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has taken the custody of Zulfikar Ali, one of the four with alleged links to the Islamic State (ISIS or IS) arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Thane in July, from Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai.
The NIA arrested the four accused – Tabish Nasser Siddiqui from Mumbai, Zubair Noor Mohammed Shaikh alias Abu Nusaiba from Pune, and Sharjeel Shaikh and Zulfikar Ali Barodawala from Thane – on July 3. A few days later, the Pune ATS on July 18 arrested Mohd Imran and Mohd Yunus, who were working for Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) offshoot SUFA and were wanted in an NIA case, from Kondhwa. The ATS last Friday arrested Simab Nasaruddin Qazi for helping Shahanawaaz Alam, who is on the run, after the arrest of Imran and Yunus.
'Maha' #ISIS plot: 'India faces huge threat from international organization like ISIS, etc. and all has been done over the internet, we need to monitor these websites': @spvaid, Ex-DGP, J&K. @sushantsareen, Sr fellow ORF shares views#TheRightStand | @AnchorAnandN | #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/tD1rP7WwDF— News18 (@CNNnews18) August 1, 2023
BOMB-MAKING MATERIAL; LOCATION TRACED TO INTERIORS OF MAHARASHTRA
According to ATS sources, Ali could be the mastermind of the terror module, which the agency is investigating.
Cops are also on the lookout for Shahanawaaz Alam. “Once we question Ali, we will know whether Alam is the mastermind. Our investigation has revealed that Alam had planted acid at Bopatghat, near Kondhwa in Pune. We took help of a bomb disposal squad and seized acid and other chemicals used to make bomb," said an officer, privy to the case.
The ATS team found chemicals and lab equipment used for making bomb on July 31. The team collected bomb-making materials, including thermometer, dropper and pipette, from the spot. Investigation would now be held to find out where they got the material from.
Sources said that while trying to make a bomb, one of the accused had burnt his hand. “They were both trying to master guerilla warfare because their locations have been traced to jungles in interiors of Maharashtra, including Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara, among others. We can say that they were like a sleeper cell, because they did not have any instructions to attack any place yet," said the officer.
ENGINEERS-TURNED-TERRORISTS
The team would now investigate the links between Al Sufa and ISIS module, and the earlier case of NIA, which Ali is linked to, could also be looked into.
Also, as the NIA has questioned certain accused and even found pictures of Mumbai’s Chabad house, among other key spots, the Central agency could investigate the case with the Pune ATS.
Investigating agencies found that two of the five accused in this case are engineers, some of them earning a hefty package, but were brainwashed into working for the group.
Earlier the agency had recovered 500 GB of data from the arrested accused. The data contains literature about how to make bombs, Google map images, literature for causing disharmony and brainwashing people, and several YouTube links. Among this data, various drone images, Google images, and links to locations were also found, which have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for investigation.
Comments
0 comment