The Uttar Pradesh Police’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) busted an ISIS module in Aligarh in November 2023. A total of 7 terrorists have been arrested so far. On 3rd November 2023, the ATS registered an FIR against 10 identified and some unidentified accused in the case.
So far, Delhi and UP Police have arrested a total of 7 terrorists. Others named in the terrorist network are absconding. Most of these terrorists associated with ‘Aligarh Muslim University’ (AMU) had vowed to wage jihad.
An FIR has been registered at the Gomti Nagar police station of the ATS. The complainant is ATS in-charge of Aligarh. The complaint follows an FIR lodged in Mumbai’s Kala Chowki police station area in early 2023. The FIR was lodged under sections of forgery, theft, criminal intent etc.
The Uttar Pradesh ATS was collecting information about the accused named in this FIR. During the investigation, the ATS got information about Shahnawaz of Hazaribagh in Jharkhand and Rizwan, a resident of Daryaganj in Delhi.
The ATS put Shahnawaz and Rizwan’s phones on surveillance. The conversation between the two revealed that they are active members of the terrorist organisation ISIS. When the police gathered more information about these two, it was discovered that Shahnawaz and Rizwan are associated with the Aligarh Muslim University’s student organisation SAMU (Students of Aligarh Muslim University).
The main names among the members of SAMU are Waziuddin, Abdullah Arslan, Maz bin Tariq, Abdul Samad Malik, Faizan Bakhtiar, Arshad Warsi, Mohammad Naved and Rizwan Ashraf. A copy of the FIR is with OpIndia.
All these accused in this case are from different places, including Aligarh, Chhattisgarh, Sambhal, Prayagraj, Delhi and Jharkhand. Rizwan Ashraf is not a student of AMU. The whole group was influenced by the ideology of ISIS.
The ATS was conducting its investigation during which Rizwan Ashraf and Arshad Warsi were arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police on 2nd October 2023. Shahnawaz was associated with ISIS for a long time and was building its network by staying in Aligarh. Shahnawaz’s companions got him married to Khadija in Aligarh. Khadija is a converted Muslim. She was a Hindu earlier.
Apart from all this, Mohammad Rizwan Ashraf had convinced other members of SAMU to wage jihad. Together, they were distributing jihadi literature and expanding their organisational network. All of them were also connecting other AMU students to ISIS.
These terrorists operated in Rampur, Kaushambi, Sambhal, Prayagraj, Lucknow and Aligarh area. They were guided by ISIS handlers through various apps. According to the ATS, all these accused wanted to establish Sharia law in the country by waging war against India.
It is also mentioned in the ATS complaint that all the accused were also secretly collecting weapons. Their purpose was to carry out a major terrorist attack. The police have booked all the 10 named accused under sections 121-A and 122 of the IPC as well as sections 13, 18, 18B and 38 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967.
Faizan Bakhtiar and Abdul Samad Malik are currently on the run. All the other named accused have been arrested by Delhi and UP Police on different days.