In a coordinated operation with the Intelligence Bureau and the Telangana Police on Tuesday, the Madhya Pradesh anti-terrorist squad (ATS) dismantled a Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) module and apprehended 16 people. Officers informed that the accused persons, including a professor from a college in Hyderabad and a computer engineer from Bhopal, intended to foment terrorism and wage war against the country.
Madhya Pradesh | 10 members of the radical Islamic organisation Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT), who were arrested from Bhopal today, have been sent to Police custody till May 19th by Bhopal’s NIA court: MP Police pic.twitter.com/6T4fUmYdiW
— ANI MP/CG/Rajasthan (@ANI_MP_CG_RJ) May 9, 2023
In parallel early-morning raids, authorities seized five individuals in Hyderabad and 11 from two cities in Madhya Pradesh. They had been under the surveillance of police and intelligence agencies for some time after information about HuT’s intention to establish a base in India emerged. Of the 11 arrested in MP, 10 were arrested from Bhopal’s Shahjahanabad, Aishbagh, Lalghati and Pipalani areas, while one was nabbed from Chhindwara city.
According to the police, the perpetrators’ possessions included radical literature, laptops, pen drives, hard drives, money, and other items.
The MP Police has registered a case against the accused under sections 13, 17 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and other relevant sections. They have been remanded to ATS custody until May 19 by a special court.
The offenders were employed as teachers, fitness instructors, computer technicians, tailors, vehicle drivers, and labourers, among other occupations. One of them was reportedly managing a coaching facility in Bhopal. According to sources, HuT has managed to extend its doctrine and support base to at least 50 nations. The outfit has been training its cadres in chemical and biological warfare while evading international inspection. The group is banned in 16 countries.
The HuT was last active in India in 2010, but recent information on its expansion plans in the country, particularly in Madhya Pradesh, where it has been covertly recruiting and training members, was provided by international security agencies.
As per the investigators, the apprehended men were secretly practising shooting and receiving combat training at camps in remote jungle locations, where jihadi material was also passed out and provocative speeches were delivered during private religious gatherings.
Young individuals eager to give their lives for the cause of Islamism were known to be identified and recruited by the accused. They exchanged messages using a variety of encrypted applications, including Threema, Rocket Chat, and other programmes that are akin to those used by ISIS and other terrorist organisations on the dark web.
Six people connected to the MP-based group were found in Telangana by intelligence sleuths, five of them have been arrested and the hunt is still on for one of them. Md Saleem alias Saurabh Raj Vaidhya (41), the head of a private college’s pharmaceutical biotechnology department in Hyderabad, moved to the region from MP in 2018. He became friends with and radicalised the other males over time.
He would frequently gather with the other five radicals, Sheikh Junaid (32), a dentist, Md Abbas Ali alias B Venu Kumar (36), an auto driver, Abdur Rahman alias Devi Prasad Panda (33), a cloud service engineer and native of Odisha, Md Salman (27) and Md Hameed (30), both daily wage earners to converse about the concepts and strategies the MP contacts had shared regarding the establishment of an Islamic state in India.
The numerous contacts in Hyderabad raised a red flag with the intelligence apparatus, which alerted the MP Police and IB. “The Hyderabad module wanted to start off on their own to spread jihadi ideology,” unveiled a police officer.
Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international pan-Islamist and fundamentalist political organization whose stated aim is the re-establishment of the Islamic caliphate to unite the Muslim community and implement sharia globally. The group’s aim is to unify all Muslim countries to form an Islamic state or caliphate. After establishing the Islamic State, they plan to expand the caliphate into non-Muslim areas, through “invitation” and through military jihad.
