Gujarat ATS unravels ‘targeted killings’ conspiracy to avenge Prophet’s insult
The Gujarat ATS has arrested a 22-year-old highly radicalised tailor who allegedly operated like a “lone wolf” and planned to carry out targeted killings of some individuals in Uttar Pradesh for ‘insulting’ Prophet Muhammad, officials said on Tuesday.
The ATS seized a pistol and six live cartridges from the accused, Faizan Shaikh, on Sunday. Originally from Dundawala in the Rampur district of UP, he was staying at Charpul in the Navsari district, Gujarat. “He operated like a lone wolf. Whenever he found someone passing remarks against the Prophet, he would conspire with people connected to his group to kill that person,” Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) DIG Sunil Joshi told reporters.
A primary investigation showed that Shaikh and the wanted accused Mohd Abu Bakar planned to strike terror in a specific community. The conspiracy involves inciting people for an armed rebellion and Jihad to separate Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh from the Union of India, Joshi said. “After being radicalised by ideologies of the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Al Qaeda terror groups, Shaikh had illegally procured a pistol and ammunition to execute killings of a selected group of individuals to spread terror and fear,” Joshi told reporters. The seizure of 29 pages containing “suspicious literature”, containing Arabic/Urdu text, and photos, revealed highly objectionable content inciting Jihad and attracting young people to work for proscribed organisations like Al Qaeda, he said.
Prima facie, Shaikh and Abu Bakar had conspired to wage a war against the Government of India and incite violence.
“The accused (Shaikh) told interrogators that he had been in contact with Abu Bakar for the last 6-7 months via WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram. About three months ago, he had joined a group via his Instagram ID ‘al. Faizangaza,” said the DIG.
In this group, photos and names of individuals who allegedly insulted the Prophet were circulated with the instigation to kill them.
“Faizan Shaikh forwarded this to others. Both Faizan and Abu Bakar followed Maulana Masood Azhar and the banned outfit JeM on Instagram. They watched and uploaded Jihadi videos of Mufti Abdul Rauf Asgar on the social media platform,” Joshi added. The ATS claimed that Shaikh “confessed” to having purchased the pistol and cartridges six months ago from an unidentified person in Uttar Pradesh.
He intended to identify and carry out targeted killings of those individuals who he believed had insulted the Prophet, the ATS officer said.
Explaining the sequence of events that culminated in Shaikh’s arrest, Joshi said the ATS had received an intelligence input that the accused had been planning to gun down certain well-known youths in Uttar Pradesh with the intention to spread terror.
A technical analysis led the anti-terror agency to a suspicious Instagram profile used by Shaikh, “al.Faizangaza”, and further covert inquiry confirmed the suspect lived in the identified area, Charpul. The contents of his mobile phone include inflammatory literature supporting the ideology of Jaish-e-Mohammed and Al-Qaeda, a photograph depicting the Red Fort with a black Islamic flag replacing the tricolour, with “Al Faizan Choudhary” written in English at the bottom, according to ATS.
A map of the Indian subcontinent where the area of India, excluding Kashmir, is shown in black with Arabic text, and Kashmir is depicted with the flag of the so-called “Azad Kashmir,” among others. His mobile phone also contained materials stating that he has “photos of those who insulted the Prophet”, and they will die a “dog’s death.” “Other materials include a world map with a black Islamic flag over the globe and ‘Hizb ut-Tahrir’ written in English, photos of various individuals with their faces circled, marking them as targets and chats with ‘Mohammed Abu Bakar’.
