Combat Training, Dark Web: Inner Workings Of A Busted Radical Outfit Module

A module of the radical Islamist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir has been busted and 16 members of the outfit arrested by Madhya Pradesh police's Anti-Terrorism Squad or ATS on Tuesday. The ATS made the arrests from Bhopal and Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh and Hyderabad.

Madhya Pradesh ATS said that the accused had started forming their own cadre in the state and their aim was to link the youth to the organisation by terming the country's governance system as anti-Islamic.

According to the police, the accused used to practice close-combat training and shooting by going to the jungles secretly. People from Hyderabad used to come and give them training. Secretly they were given provocative speeches, they used dark web apps like Rocket Chat and Threema to communicate with each other, the police added.

Provocative literature, cash and technical equipment were seized from the accused in the early morning raid, said officials. To hide their identity the accused were working as gym trainers, computer technicians, tailors, and auto drivers. One of the arrested members was running a coaching centre in the name of Eduforum Tutorials in Kohefiza in Bhopal, the police said. The accused used to recce their target with a drone camera, they said.

The network of Hizb-ut-Tahrir or HuT, formerly known as Tehreek-e-Khilafat, is spread in 50 and banned in more than 16 countries. HuT has a separate armed wing abroad that trains its cadres in chemical, bacteriological, and biological warfare, the officials said.

The accused used to identify such youths who have a little violent tendency, who would not hesitate even to sacrifice their lives for the organization, they said.

The plan of the organization was to add more and more youths and prepare them for Jihad against other religions. For this, they had also made their map and were planning to carry out an operation, said the officials.

A case has been registered against the accused under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA and other sections.

In March last year, the Madhya Pradesh ATS busted the Jamaat-e-Mujahideen Bangladesh module and arrested 3 Bangladeshi terrorists.