Gujarat ATS Nabs Four Al-Qaeda Operatives

GG News Bureau
Ahmedabad, 24th July: The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has arrested four individuals with alleged links to al-Qaeda, accused of operating a fake currency racket and propagating the global terror group’s ideology. One of the arrests was made in another state, according to ATS officials.

The arrested individuals have been identified as Mohd Faiq, Mohd Fardeen, Sefullah Kureshi, and Zeeshan Ali. Sources indicate that they utilized social media platforms and suspicious auto-delete applications to disseminate al-Qaeda’s ideology and erase their communication traces. The four are currently undergoing interrogation.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Gujarat ATS, Sunil Joshi, stated that the accused had been associated with the terror group for a long time, establishing contact through social media. Their activities came under the ATS radar when they were detected discussing terror activities within Gujarat.

DIG Joshi revealed that Delhi-resident Faiq was in contact with a Pakistani Instagram user, discussing methods to spread “jihadi activities” in India. A raid at Shaikh’s house in Ahmedabad’s Fatehwadi area uncovered a sword and al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) literature promoting jihad against India, particularly citing ‘Operation Sindoor’ against Pakistan in May.

“The main agenda of these four accused was to attract youth towards AQIS ideology and incite them to uproot democracy in India to establish sharia through violence,” Mr. Joshi stated, adding that investigations are underway to determine if they received funding and their exact plans.

Their Instagram posts reportedly contained AQIS literature, calls for establishing sharia, and other radical statements designed to incite communal hatred. The accused had also posted a video of Asim Umar, an Indian who joined AQIS and was killed in Afghanistan in 2019.

The ATS said that the conduct of the accused amounts to a “premeditated criminal conspiracy to incite terrorism, promote armed insurrection, and undermine the sovereignty and democratic fabric of India.” Al-Qaeda, founded by Osama bin Laden’s mentor, Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, has been involved in numerous attacks globally and was historically based in Afghanistan and Pakistan.