Bhopal, 04 July: Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) has arrested a terrorist Faizan Sheikh, 34, from Khandwa who was trying to terrorize Madhya Pradesh once again. He was associated with Indian Mujahideen. The terrorist has been arrested by ATS while planning a lone wolf attack (without any partner).
During interrogation, it was found that security force personnel were his target. He has confessed to doing recce of security forces and their families.
Also, jihadi posts related to Indian Mujahideen have been uploaded on the social media profile of this terrorist named Faizan, which also includes videos of terrorist camps running in Pakistan. He has been caught taking training through these videos and photos.
He told the police that he is inspired by terrorist Abu Faisal. He wanted to become a bigger terrorist than Abu Faisal.
In this regard, IG ATS Dr. Ashish told that Madhya Pradesh ATS arrested terrorist Faizan father Hanif Sheikh (34 years) associated with banned organization Indian Mujahideen (IM) from Khandwa on Thursday morning by raiding his residence Kanjar Mohalla, Saluja Colony Khandwa. Crime under section 13(1) (B), 18, 20, 38 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 has been registered against him. A
large amount of videos, jihadi literature along with pistol, live cartridges were recovered.
He told that a large amount of jihadi literature related to IM, ISIS and other terrorist organizations, 04 mobile phones, 01 pistol and 05 live cartridges, membership forms of SIMI organization have been seized from the terrorist. Jihadi literature, videos and photos of various terrorist organizations – Indian Mujahideen, ISIS, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba etc. have been found in the mobile phone and digital device seized from his possession. He was involved in promoting ISIS
. IG ATS Dr. Ashish says that the arrested terrorist has also been found to be in contact with members of the banned organization SIMI. He was propagating the ideology of IM/ISIS by posting jihadi posts related to Indian Mujahideen on his social media- Facebook ID. Along with this, he was circulating videos of Mujahideen training camps running in Pakistan, speeches of Masood Azhar (Jaish-e-Mohammed) Lashkar-e-Taiba, the story of Kandahar plane hijacking and statements of Mullah Omar and posts related to Ansar Ghazwa-tul-Hind (AGH) through social media. He was collecting pistols and cartridges to carry out a major crime.
Also, IG ATS Dr. Ashish gave an important information that Faizan had planned to carry out a lone wolf attack, for which the security force personnel and their families were being monitored and recced. By carrying out such an attack, he wanted to prove himself a great Mujahid like Yasin Bhatkal of Indian Mujahideen and SIMI chief Abu Faisal. To execute his plan, he was collecting pistols and cartridges by contacting local illegal arms dealers and people from outside the state. In this case, further interrogation is being done by taking the accused on police remand and information about his other associates is also being sought.
Madhya Pradesh ATS caught many terrorists in three years. Madhya
Pradesh Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Madhya Pradesh has been keeping a constant watch on the activities of banned and radical terrorist organizations active in the state during the last three years, such as Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Indian Mujahideen (IM), Popular Front of India (PFI), Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT), terrorist organization Alsafa, LWE (Moist), and many terrorists associated with them have been arrested.
These are the important arrests made in the last three years:
22 from Popular Front of India (PFI) 6 from
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)/ Alsafa 6
from Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) 16
from Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HUT)
04 from LWE (Moist)
01 from Indian Mujahideen (IM)
This is the dark truth of these terrorist organizations.
In this way, the state’s Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) has succeeded in arresting a total of 55 accused and confiscating a large amount of weapons, ammunition, anti-national literature, objectionable documents and digital equipment from their possession. Let us understand a little history of the terrorist organizations whose terrorists have been arrested here. Actually, among these, Indian Mujahideen (IM) has been declared a banned organization by the Government of India in the year 2013 due to violent extremist activities.
The objective of the organization is to establish an Islamic state in India through violent means. In India, from 2005 to 2013, IM has been involved in bomb blasts in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune etc. In Madhya Pradesh, a strong network was established by IM’s chief Riyaz Bhatkal with the help of SIMI members of Madhya Pradesh for recruitment and training in the organization. In the Ahmedabad serial bomb blast case caused by SIMI and IM terrorists, in the year 2022, 3 accused including SIMI chief Safdar Nagori of Madhya Pradesh have been sentenced to death and 5 other accused have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Similarly, the terrorist organization Islamic State in Iran and Syria (ISIS) is known for its extremist ideology and brutal strategy, which aims to establish a global Islamic empire. Madhya Pradesh ATS has taken several effective actions against ISIS so far. Importantly, in the year 2015, 05 youths associated with it were arrested from Ratlam. In the year 2017, 3 accused from Uttar Pradesh involved in the bomb blast in Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train were arrested.
Just two years ago in 2022, MP Police was successful in arresting three accused of Al Safa along with this organization in the explosives seized case in Nimbahera, Rajasthan. At the same time, last year in the year 2023, the police was successful in arresting three accused of ISIS module from Jabalpur.
It is worth noting that huge quantities of weapons, ammunition, anti-national literature, objectionable documents and digital equipment were seized from all of them.
It is noteworthy that Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav has given instructions to adopt a zero tolerance policy to prevent terrorist and other anti-national activities. Under this, MP ATS is keeping a close watch in the entire state, due to which ATS has achieved this big success today.
