In a significant development in the Ghaziabad conversion case wherein a minor Jain boy was brainwashed over ‘Fortnite’ game to convert to Islam, the Uttar Pradesh government has approved National Security Act (NSA) invoked against the accused Maulvi Abdul Rehman who was arrested on June 4 for his involvement in the alleged conversion racket.
In accordance with the provisions of the NSA Act, accused Abdul Rehman will not step out of jail for at least a year.
This comes after Ghaziabad police invoked NSA against accused Mosque committee member Abdul Rehman in July of this year and forwarded the file to the Uttar Pradesh government. A hearing on the matter was recently convened by the state government’s board. According to reports, the Ghaziabad DM and DCP were also present at the hearing and gave their arguments in support of the NSA action against the accused. Reportedly, the file of co-accused Shahnawaz Maqsood alias Baddo has also been handed to the administration, and a decision may be made soon.
In June of this year, Ghaziabad police uncovered a conversion case in which Islamists used online games to entice young children to convert to Islam. As reported earlier, 3 Hindu boys and 1 Jain boy were identified as victims, brainwashed to follow practices of Islam including offering Namaz five times a day through an online game called Fortnite.
The matter was brought into focus after an FIR was filed on May 30 at Ghaziabad’s Kavi Nagar police station on the complaint of the minor Jain boy’s parents, who claimed that their “son was lured into accepting Islam while playing an online game.”
Following the complaint, a special UP Police team was dispatched to Thane, Maharashtra, which arrested Shanawaz Khan alias Baddo, the racket’s mastermind. The police nabbed another accused Maulvi Abdul Rehman alias Nanni s/o Mehmood Ansari or Sanjaynagar in the Madhuban Bapudham Police Station area of Ghaziabad.
During the probe, police found that several steps were taken to entice Hindu and Jain boys to convert to Islam. In the initial phase, Muslim guys created accounts with Hindu names and played Fortnite games with unaware Hindu and Jain players. If they lose, the accused would have them recite Islamic texts in the hope that it will help them win. Later, they would let them win in order to build trust.
In the second step, they were lured into following Islamic practices. In the third step, they would share videos of fugitive Islamic preacher Zakir Naik and Islamic speeches over the Discord app to brainwash the victims. They would use such videos to both inform them about Islamic practises and entice them to accept Islam.
