Bhopal: The recent arrest of 16 Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HUT) terrorists in a countrywide raid, which also resulted in the arrest of 10 terrorists of the same radical organisation from Madhya Pradesh, blew the lid off a long-running terror network run by the outfit in the state, police said.
According to cops, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which has spread its dragnet in 50 countries in the world, established its foothold in Bhopal about 18 years ago. Their main aim was to convert and target people of upper-class families, who call themselves 'secular.' Cops said members of the outfit gave training to new recruits in the use of guns, specially shrapnel guns. They also said that out of the total 16 arrested terrorists, 10 are from Bhopal, one from Chhindwara and five from Hyderabad.
The arrested HUT members sought remand at a court on May 19. During the investigation, arrested terrorists came up with startling revelations which exposed their deep-rooted activities in the state. Cops said all 16 members used to run two types of camps in Bhopal. One type of camp was used to ideologically brainwash prospective targets. Youths were motivated by speeches in various localities. On the other hand, arms training was imparted in the other type of camps.
The HUT members also tried to slyly dodge cops who were given different versions to purportedly create confusion about terror bases in the state. During the first round of interrogation, the arrested HUT members only provided details on Raisen came up. Later cops extracted details which pointed towards some other bases in jungles close to Bhopal. Besides Jagdishpur, formerly Islam Nagar, they had built a camp in the forests of Binapur near Brickkhedi. This area is close to Brickkhedi, Gunga and Parwalia police station areas. Another camp came up at the Samardha forest of Raisen. According to an investigating officer, terrorists formed groups of 12. Instead of going together, they used to reach the fixed locations through different bikes and jeeps.
Everyone used to have a shotgun with pellets. The logic of keeping a shotgun is that it does not come under the Arms Act. Since it's not a legal offence to use it, so it was used only in training. In these two areas, four to five members were deployed in all directions during the training, so that they can quickly alert outfit members in case of someone's arrival.
Cops are yet to extract details on the availability of arms and bombs which were recovered from the. According to cops, terrorists' extra cautious and silent modus operandi denied security people any chance of getting a clue of their activities. Their suspicious activities came on the radar of ATS sleuths only a year ago. According to sleuths, they were primarily targeting people to convert them first and then impart arms training for the Tehreek-e-Khilafat movement in the state and elsewhere.
The investigations further revealed that the arrested terrorists had the full support of their family members. The team members, who were equipped with high-end technical knowledge, used to interact with other ideological peers through the dark web. Police said six out of 16 members were technically very competent. There had teachers and engineers among them. For example, Chhindwara-based Abdul Karim, who is a manager with a private bank for 10 years, was in charge of the cyber indoctrination of youths.
From Chhindwara, he used to arrange online meetings. Total planning was done online. They used to lure youths with the promise of online jobs and recruited them. Saurabh alias Salim Mohammed of Berasia, who was a professor at a private college, had to escape after his name cropped up in a case related to conversion.
He left Madhya Pradesh and took a job at Deccan College, Hyderabad where he quickly shifted with his family to evade arrest. The arrested persons were identified as Yasir Khan, 29, a gym trainer in Bhopal's Shajhanabad, Mehraj Ali,25, a computer technician from Aishbagh in Bhopal, Syed Sami Rizvi, 32, a teacher at the coaching centre, Millennium Habitat in Shaheed Nagar, Khalid Hussain, 40, teacher and businessman in Barela village, Shahrukh, 29, tailor from Jawahar Colony of Aishbagh, Wasim Khan, an NGO activist from Bagh Umrao Dulha, Misbah-Ul-Haq, 29, labourer from Housing Board Colony, Aishbagh, Mohammad Alam, 35, from Noor Mahal Road, Chowki Imambara., Shahid, 26, auto driver from Jawahar Colony, Aishbagh, Syed Danish Ali, a software engineer, Aishbagh, Abdul Karim Rehman, assistant manager in FDDI Maintenance Branch, Chhindwara, Sheikh Junaid, 13, Mohd Saleem, professor from Hyderabad, Danish Ali, 15 and Mohammad Hameed.
