Four suspected terrorists belonging to ISIS were arrested AT Ahmedabad airport in Gujarat. All four accused are Sri Lankan nationals, the Gujarat Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) said on Monday.
Security was heightened at the Ahmedabad airport over the arrest of the suspected terrorists on Monday.
The accused have been identified as Mohammad Nusrat (35), Mohammad Faarukh (35), Mohammad Nafran (27) and Mohammad Rasdeen (43) who took a flight from Colombo and reached Chennai on Sunday morning and took another flight to Ahmedabad, where they landed around 8 pm that day.
Guj ATS Team Recovers Arms
The ATS arrested the accused based on a tip-off at the Sardar Vallabhai Patel airport in Ahmedabad after they travelled from Sri Lanka's capital Colombo via Chennai on Sunday night.
Director General of Police Vikas Sahay said that the men travelled to India to carry out terror activities at the behest of IS.
He added that the ATS team has also recovered three Pakistan-made pistols and 20 cartridges lying abandoned at a location in the city's Nana Chiloda area based on geo-coordinates and photographs found on the mobile phone seized from the accused.
According to Sahay, it is suspected that the men were allegedly directed by their Pakistani handler to collect these weapons.
Initial Findings And Interrogation Of Accused
DGP Sahay informed that the men told the investigators that they were earlier associated with the banned Sri Lankan radical militant outfit, National Thowheeth Jamath (NJT), and joined IS after getting in touch with Pakistani handler Abu Bakr Al Bagdadi.
The men also revealed that they are members of IS radicalised by a leader from Sri Lanka who is living in Pakistan.
Sahay reportedly said, "They got in touch with Abu (the IS leader in Pakistan) in February this year and remained in contact with him through social media and were completely radicalised by the ideology."
According to Sahay the arrested individuals revealed that their leader had ordered them to carry out terrorist activities in India. They had agree to not only follow the order but even showed readiness to carry out suicide bombings.
It is said that the men were paid Rs 4 lakh in Sri Lankan currency to carry out the activities.
As per PTI, the mobile phones recovered from the accused had photographs and documents showing their association with IS, and an IS flag was also recovered from their bag, and two such flags were recovered from the abandoned parcel containing weapons.
The men were instructed to leave these flags at the site of their terror activities, he said.
Sahay said the ATS used a translator to interrogate the accused, as they did not understand any other language apart from Tamil.
Interrogations revealed that Abu had informed the accused about the weapons hidden at the given location in Ahmedabad for their use, he said.
Connection With Pakistan
The pistols carried star marks, and cartridges were prima facie found to be made in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) of Pakistan, reportedly.
One of the four arrested terrorists, Mohammad Nusrat, also holds a valid visa for Pakistan.
The men were booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Indian Penal Code and Arms Act, and further investigation was underway, Sahay said.
The arrests came ahead of the arrival of three Indian Premier League (IPL) teams at the Ahmedabad airport for the qualifier and eliminator games.
In March this year, two top leaders of ISIS in India were arrested near the international border after they crossed over from Bangladesh.
The arrested ISIS cadres were identified as Harish Ajmal Farooqi alias Harish Ajmal Farukhi, a resident of Dehradun in Uttarakhand, and Anurag Singh alias Rehan, a resident of Panipat in Haryana.
In a December last year, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on arrested 15 alleged operatives of the banned organisation during simultaneous raids at 44 locations across Maharashtra and Karnataka.
In October 2023, a special cell of Delhi police arrested NIA's most wanted and suspected ISIS terrorist, Shahnawaz from Jaitpur in South Delhi on Monday. Apart from him, two persons, also carrying bounty on their heads by the NIA were also arrested.
