A local court in Ankleshwar town in Bharuch district on Thursday sent the two suspected ISIS operatives to 10-day police remand.
The duo — Kasim Stimberiwala and Ubed Ahmed Mirza were arrested by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) from Surat on Wednesday. The ATS said that they were planning to attack a Jewish synagogue in Khadia area of Ahmedabad. The ATS claimed that they had even carried out reconnaissance of the place.
While Ubed was a practicing lawyer with the Surat district court, Kasim worked as a laboratory technician with a hospital in Ankleshwar. Both the suspects were presented before the court in Ankleshwar after their medical check-up.
The ATS booked the suspects under sections 120-A (criminal conspiracy), 121-A (waging or attempt to wage war against Government of India) and 125 (Waging war against any Asiatic power in alliance or at peace with Government of India) of the IPC, besides under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The ATS has recovered a 128 GB pen drive with objectionable material, ISIS books and provocative speeches of terrorist leaders as Mufti Abdul Shashi Kasmi from the suspects. Other than Gujarat ATS, NIA and several Central intelligence agencies too are expected to interrogate both the men for further information on IS terror network in the country.
The FIR registered against them mentions that both are “highly radicalised by the fundamental ideology of the IS for the last many years” and were actively planning terrorist acts. They were said to be under influence of Abdullah el-Faisal, who was convicted of spreading hatred in the UK and deported to Jamaica. Both the ISIS operatives picked up from Surat were also planning to visit Jamaica to meet el-Faisal, police said. The police was monitoring these two after carrying out active surveillance of their social media accounts for over a year. The duo, on their part, was believed to be influenced by the extreme ideology for last three-four years.
These suspects also made “intensive” efforts to radicalise other youths from across the country using social media, holding one-on-one meetings and through telephonic calls with an aim to send them to countries as Syria, libya and Iraq for terrorist activities.
Both the suspects were also believed to be in contact with Shafi Armar, an ISIS handler wanted in various cases of serial blasts triggered by Indian Mujahideen (IM) and currently believed to be out of the country. They are also believed to have received help from two persons named Shahid Malivala and Shabbir.