4 Arrested In Gujarat For Alleged Links With Banned Terrorist Organisation

The Gujarat ATS has busted an Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) module and arrested three men and a woman, in operations carried out in Porbandar and Surat, police said Saturday. The men hail from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir.

Acting on a tip-off, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested three men from Porbandar and a woman from Surat city and seized from them "incriminating" materials that showed their association with the banned terrorist organisation, said Director General of Police (DGP) Vikas Sahay.

A first information report (FIR) has been registered against the four under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and efforts are on to nab a wanted accused in this connection, Mr Sahay said.

The ISKP is a transnational Salafi-Jihadist organisation and a UN-designated terrorist organisation.

"The three men were planning to use a fishing boat from Porbandar to cross the International Maritime Boundary Line and reach Afghanistan via Iran and join ISKP," Mr Sahay told reporters.

They were detained from Porbandar on Friday morning and were identified as Ubed Nasir Mir, Hanan Hayat Shol and Mohammad Hajim Shah, all residents of Srinagar, Mr Sahay said.

During preliminary interrogation, they revealed that they were trained and radicalised by a handler identified as Abu Hamza.

They also told the ATS that two more persons, identified as Zuber Ahmed Munshi from Srinagar and Sumerabanu Hanif Malek of Surat, were also members of the ISKP module and associated with them.

"Based on the information, Gujarat ATS and Surat crime branch raided the house of Sumera Malek and seized several radical publications such as 'Voice of Khorasan' from there.

Sumera revealed that she was in touch with her handler and in close relation with Zuber," the police officer said.

The DGP said that several documents related to their personal identities, and materials used for digital communication such as mobile phones, tablets and sharp weapons were recovered from trio detained from Porbandar.

When the cloud storage of the accused was accessed, their photographs with ISKP banner, videos of a leader giving them the pledge of allegiance, audio clips of their leader and other incriminating files were recovered, the ATS said in a release.

The three had been directed by their handler Abu Hamza to reach Porbandar and join a fishing boat as fishermen and use the boat captain to reach the given GPS coordinates, it said.

From there, they were to be taken to Iran on a dhow and provided with fake passports for Afghanistan and reach Khorasan via Herat, police said.

Efforts are on to nab accused Zuber Ahmed Munshi, police said.

Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi praised the ATS and Surat crime branch for the operation and said that the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah was committed to the policy of zero tolerance against terrorism.

"It is a huge success for the Gujarat police. The entire matter will be investigated thoroughly," he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)