- Both are being questioned thoroughly as they were allegedly in contact with the Surat-based woman, Sumerabanu Malek, who was among five persons arrested earlier in the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) module case
NE NEWS SERVICE
HYDERABAD, AHMEDABAD, JUNE 29
The Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) has brought two persons here from Hyderabad and is questioning them for allegedly being in touch with a Surat-based woman who was arrested in connection with an ISKP module case, said an official on Thursday.
A man and a woman have been brought from the Telangana capital, said a senior ATS official, stressing that they were neither detained nor arrested in the case yet.
Sources said both are being questioned thoroughly as they were allegedly in contact with the Surat-based woman, Sumerabanu Malek, who was among five persons arrested earlier in the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) module case.
On June 9, ATS said it had busted a terror module and arrested three men and Malek for their alleged association with ISKP, a transnational Salafi-Jihadist organisation and a UN-designated terrorist organisation.
The three men – Ubed Nasir Mir, Hanan Hayat Shol and Mohammad Hajim Shah, all residents of Srinagar – were held from Porbandar, while Malek was taken into custody from Surat.
The fifth accused, Zubair Ahmed Munshi, a resident of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, was arrested on June 12 by the ATS.
A first information report (FIR) was registered against them under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
ATS said all the five were radicalised by a handler named Abu Hamza. ATS managed to access a cloud storage account of the accused and found a video in which they can be seen taking a pledge of allegiance to ISKP while flashing sharp weapons.
As directed by Abu Hamza, the three men, held on June 9, had reached Porbandar to work as fishermen on boats so that they could cross the International Maritime Boundary Line and reach Afghanistan via Iran and join ISKP, the agency said.
The handler had planned to release their pre-recorded videos and photographs after their ‘sacrifice’ in Afghanistan, said ATS earlier.
During a search at Malek’s residence in Saiyedpura area of Surat, ATS found copies of various publications promoting radicalisation, including ISKP’s mouthpiece ‘Voice of Khorasan’, ATS had said in a release.
Malek apparently admitted to having been in touch with Abu Hamza and was also “close” to Munshi.
The literature recovered from her house have messages which primarily appeal to all the Muslims to engage in jihad, shun democracy, ask Muslim women to help in jihad and a warning for people of other religions, including the residents of the “country of cows”, said the ATS.
