On 8th December Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad declared a monetary award of Rs 25,000 each on two Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) students for their affiliation with the terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The accused have been identified as 25-year-old Abdul Samad Malik of Sambhal and 24-year-old Faizan Bakhtiyar from Prayagraj. They were reportedly residents of the VM Hall hostel of the institution and were pursuing master’s degrees in social work from there.
The two are also connected to the Students of Aligarh Muslim University (SAMU) and used to participate in propaganda for ISIS. Authorities recently busted the network of the terror outfit in the country. According to police on 15th December, nine members of the terror group’s module have been arrested from Uttar Pradesh and other states since 2nd October.
Abdullah Arsalan and Maaz bin Tariq, members of the ISIS Pune module, were taken into custody on 3rd November, as per Additional Director General (ADG) ATS Mohit Aggarwal. The module comprised multiple Aligarh Muslim University students. ATS identified these students and discovered that they were associated with Aligarh Muslim University students Abdul Samad Malik, Faizan Bakhtiyar, Mohammed Arshad Warsi and Mohammed Shahnawaz Alam from Jharkhand, Rizwan Abdul Haji Ali who is a native of Delhi, Wajihuddin Ali Khan, Abdullah Arsalan and Maaz bin Tariq from Aligarh, Mohammad Naved Siddiqui of Chandausi, Sambhal and Rizwan Ashraf from Uttar Pradesh.
On 3rd November the ATS filed a formal complaint against Shahnawaz and ten other individuals under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Indian Penal Code sections 121-A (conspiracy to wage war against the country) and 122 (collecting arms and ammunition with the intention to wage war against the nation).
According to officials, this module first surfaced after Shahnawaz and Rizwan who were connected to the AMU’s Students of Aligarh Muslim University (SAMU) student body were apprehended by the Mumbai ATS on 2nd October. Afterwards, with the arrest of Arsalan and Tariq on 3rd November as part of the ongoing operation against the AMU-ISIS module, the UP ATS filed a First Information Report against Shahnawaz and ten other individuals.
On 11th November, Wajihudeen who is another module member was captured in Chhattisgarh’s Durg. Officials revealed that he possesses a PhD from AMU and is employed by the ISIS network while masquerading as a member of SAMU.
Furthermore, four more present and former AMU students from the Sambhal and Bhadohi districts were detained by the ATS on suspicion of being connected to the module. They were Sambhal residents 23-year-old Naved Siddiqui, 27-year-old Mohammed Noman and 33-year-old Mohammed Nazim along with 29-year-old Raqeeb Imam of Bhadohi, based on UP ATS officials. Mohammed Noman completed his BA (Hons), Naved Siddiqui was pursuing a BSc and Raqeeb Imam had completed his MTech and BTech while Mohammed Nazim had graduated from the same university.
The ATS has taken action against the terror network run by several ISIS terrorists who have turned self-radicalised and are connected to the SAMU, according to Special Director General for Law and Order Prashant Kumar. He unveiled they were spreading ISIS’s ideology and aimed to impose Islamic law on the whole world.
Wajihuddin Ali Khan used social media to introduce young people to the ISIS’s jihadi ideology. The perpetrators intended to become Mujahids and impose Sharia rule by carrying out jihad in India after viewing the videos of the infamous Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Members of this module were active in Aligarh, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Sambhal, Rampur, Kaushambi, and other areas. They were all encouraging other AMU students to become members of the dreaded outfit. Wajihuddin received directions to commit acts of terrorism from a handler seated in Pakistan. He was the mastermind of the Pune module and was nabbed by ATS while Shahnawaz and Rizwan had been arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell.