The Gujarat Police Anti-Terrorist Squad has detained five people, including a lady from Porbandar, for alleged ties to the banned international terror group the Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISKP), an offshoot of the Islamic State.
The arrests were made as part of a special operation, according to state police, and raids are still ongoing. At a news conference today, Gujarat Director General of Police (DGP) Vikas Sahay stated that the ATS of the Gujarat Police had received intelligence that three terrorists belonging to the ISKP were planning to flee India through Gujarat.
“It is a banned terrorist organization, Islamic State – Khorasan Province. Three terrorists affiliated with this organisation were planning to leave from Porbandar via the waterway,” stated the Director General of Police (DGP).
“This information was received by the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Gujarat Police. The information was properly processed and further developed,” said the police official.
“Acting on the tip-off, a team of Gujarat ATS early morning of June 9, set up a watch at Porbandar railway station and identified the three youths and held them and questioned them,” the DGP added.
The three terrorists arrested in Porbandar have been identified as Ubaid Nasir Mir, Hanan Hayat Shawl and Mohammad Hajim Shah who all are natives of Srinagar as per DGP Vikas Sahay.
After interviewing the imprisoned individuals, Gujarat DGP Sahay stated that two additional people connected to the Islamic State Khorasan were caught. A lady named Sumerabanu Mohammad Hanif Malek belonged to Surat city and Zubair Ahmed Munshi belonged to Srinagar.
Gujarat Home Minister praises ATS for capturing Islamic State terrorists
Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghvi announced the arrest of five alleged terrorists and praised the Gujarat Police ATS and Surat Crime Branch for their efforts.
“Gujarat police have been thwarting terror plots and it will continue to do so in the coming days. Gujarat police will take forward the Zero tolerance policy of the Centre as put forth by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Five suspected persons have been arrested, one from Surat,” the minister told.
He called it a huge victory for Gujarat Police and stated that the ATS will notify them of the results of its inquiry once it is over. According to the DGP, the suspects were interrogated all night Friday in connection with their terrorist actions.
Islamic State terrorists were preparing to flee India
They were discovered to be preparing to flee outside of India to join the ISKP and had been in communication with each other for the previous year. Their handler Abu Hamza was allegedly sending them communications.
The Gujarat ATS has been operating undercover over the past few days for the mission in Porbandar and surrounding areas as per the sources. The ATS special operation was led by DIG Dipen Bhadran, who has been in Porbandar with other officers since yesterday.
The officers arrived at Porbandar’s Special Operations Group (SOG) office, where the ATS executed the operation. According to ATS sources, SP Sunil Joshi, DySP KK Patel, DySP Shankar Chowdhury, and other officers were involved in the activities.
