Gujarat ATS unravels Ricin poison terror plot

The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has busted a suspected terror syndicate by arresting a ‘doctor’ with a Chinese MBBS degree, who was allegedly preparing highly-lethal chemical poison, ‘Ricin’, and whose handler is associated with the Islamic State Khorasan Province and two others.

One of the accused, Dr Ahmed Mohiyuddin Saiyed, and two other arrested accused, identified as Azad Suleman Sheikh and Mohammad Suhail Mohammad Saleem, had conducted a recce of several sensitive locations in Lucknow, Delhi, and Ahmedabad, a senior ATS officer said on Sunday.

“Dr Ahmed Mohiyuddin Saiyed is highly educated and radicalised and had planned to collect funds and recruit persons as part of a conspiracy to carry out major terrorist activities”, Gujarat ATS DIG Sunil Joshi told reporters. The accused men have also disclosed that their handler sends the arms consignment via a drone across the Pakistan border, he said.

Acting on a tip-off, an ATS team arrested Dr Saiyed, originally from Hyderabad, near Adalaj in Gandhinagar on November 7 with two Glock pistols, a Beretta pistol, 30 live cartridges and four litres of castor oil, Joshi told reporters. Saiyed, who earned his MBBS degree in China, has been preparing a highly lethal poison named ‘Ricin’ to execute a major terrorist attack. He had already begun the necessary research, procured the equipment and raw materials, and initiated the initial chemical processing, Joshi said.

Ricin is a chemical poison and can be made from the waste material left over from processing castor beans. Saiyed, Sheikh and Saleem were in Gujarat to exchange weapons and had conspired to carry out terrorist activities involving Ricin, Joshi said. On interrogation, Saiyed revealed that he was plotting to carry out terrorist activities and had collected the weapons from an isolated place at Kalol in the Gandhinagar district.

The officer said that Saiyed’s handler, Abu Khadija, was a resident of Afghanistan associated with the ISKP (Islamic State Khorasan Province), and he has also been in contact with several individuals from Pakistan. The other accused, Sheikh and Saleem, both hailing from Uttar Pradesh, were arrested in Banaskantha district for allegedly supplying weapons to Saiyed based on information collected from his mobile phone, he said. Sheikh and Saleem had allegedly procured weapons from Hanumangadh in Rajasthan and supplied them to Saiyed, Joshi added.

Joshi said that ATS also seized three mobile phones and two laptops from their possession. “The CDR (call detail record) and interrogation of the accused showed they had been conducting reconnaissance (operations of sensitive locations) for the last year. We have not come across any local sleeper cell yet in their connection, but an investigation will be carried out on every aspect of involvement of local and international networks,” he added. Whether they are involved with the ISKP is a matter of investigation, he said, adding that the Gujarat ATS was also investigating the case in different states.

The ATS will arrest others by coordinating with the Central and state agencies, he said. The trio has been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita and Arms Act, and Saiyed has been remanded in ATS custody till November 17, while the two others will be produced before a court on Sunday.