Gujarat ATS busts ISIS module, arrests 4 IS affiliates from Porbandar

Porbandar: The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Gujarat Police has successfully busted an ISIS module in the coastal town of Porbandar. Four terrorists, including a woman, associated with the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) have been arrested. The ATS has also nabbed the  absconding terrorist underway from Srinagar

The arrested accused have been identified as Ubaid Nasir Mir, Hanan Hayat Shawl, Mohammad Hajim Shah (all three from Kashmir) and Sumerabanu Mohammad Hanif Malek (from Surat).  Zubair Ahmed Munshi resident has been detained from Srinagar.

Gujarat ATS received the information that three radicalised individuals belonging to the proscribed terrorist organization, ISKP are planning to leave India through the coastal route via Porbandar, Gujarat.  Acting on the input, the Gujarat ATS team mounted a close watch at the railway station at Porbandar in the early morning hours of June 9 and identified three youths who were then detained for further questioning. 

Link with ISIS 

“Interrogation of the individuals revealed that they had been radicalized by their handler Abu Hamza and they had joined Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP). In their detailed interrogation it was ascertained that two other individuals, Zubair Ahmed Munshi resident of Amira Kadal, Srinagar and Sumerabanu Mohammad Hanif Malek, resident of Surat are also members of the same module of the ISKP and had been associated with the three detained individuals,” the ATS said.

Based on this information, a team of Gujarat ATS and Surat Crime Branch raided the residence of Sumerabanu Malek and conducted a thorough search in the presence of independent witnesses wherein several radical publications of the ISKP such as Voice of Khorasan, etc were recovered. 

Detailed investigation of IS affiliates

Detailed questioning of the individual, Sumerabanu Malek has revealed that she had been in touch with the handler and had also been in close connection with the Kashmiri individual, Zubair Ahmed Munshi who like her had also been indoctrinated by them. From her residence material purportedly written by her pledging allegiance to the leader of ISKP was also recovered.

The thorough search of the belongings and bags of the three Kashmiri youth detained at Porbandar has revealed several personal identity documents, digital communication devices such as mobile phones, tablets and also sharp-edged weapons such as knives. 

ATS recovered images of these individuals with ISKP banners and flags

By accessing the cloud storage account of these individuals in the presence of independent witnesses the police team was able to obtain several images of these individuals with the ISKP banners and flags in the background, videos of the four Kashmiri youth giving Baya’h (oath of allegiance) to the Amirulmomineen (commander of the faithful or leader), audio clips of their baya’h as well as document files mentioning that they have committed Hijrat to Khorasan.

“In their interrogation, it has been recorded that they were instructed by their handler, Abu Hamza to reach Porbandar from where they were to take employment in some fishing boat as labourers and using this boat and its captain to reach the predetermined GPS coordinate given to them from where they would be picked by a Dhow to be taken to Iran,” the ATS said in a statement. 

These individuals were to be then given fake passports using which they were to reach Khorasan via Herat. They were to then partake in attacks on behalf of the ISKP in its terror campaign in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and attain Martyrdom whereupon their prerecorded statements, images, videos and documents would be used by the handler and ISKP to declare their successful attainment of martyrdom.

FIR registered under UAPA

Based on the evidence collected by means of oral and material facts, an offence has been registered under relevant sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967, all the five accused persons.