Lucknow NIA Court convicts 8 ISIS operatives in Kanpur Conspiracy Case
All the ISIS operatives had been arrested in 2017, under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and the Explosive Substances Act.
The National Investigation Agency Special Court, Lucknow on Friday i.e. February 25, convicted eight ISIS operatives in connection with the ‘Kanpur Conspiracy Case’.
All the ISIS operatives had been arrested in 2017, under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Explosive Substances Act. As per the NIA press release, the eight accused persons were initially registered in an FIR on March 8, 2017, at ATS police station, Lucknow and later re-registered by the NIA on March 14, 2017.
NIA investigations had earlier revealed that the accused men had prepared and tested some IEDs before attempting to plant them in various locations throughout Uttar Pradesh.
“A notebook seized from their Haji Colony (Lucknow) hideout was found to contain handwritten notes about potential targets and details about bomb making. Investigations had also led to the discovery of several photographs of the accused making IEDs and even with weapons, ammunition and ISIS flag. The group had reportedly collected illegal weapons, explosives etc from various places. One of the accused, Atif Muzaffar, had also disclosed that he had compiled information on techniques to fabricate IEDs after collecting materials from various internet sources”, the NIA press release stated.
Investigations also revealed that Atif and three others, identified as Md Danish, Syed Meer Hasan, and Md Saifulla, were responsible for the IED planted in the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train. On March 7, 2017, a train exploded, injuring ten people. The NIA also investigated this case, and it is currently under trial.
The main accused in the ISIS-backed criminal conspiracy case, identified as Md Faisal was arrested for his involvement in the March 7, 2017 M.P. train explosion. On March 9, two of his associates, Gauss Mohammad Khan @ Karan Khatri and Azhar Khan @ Azhar Khalifa, were arrested as a result of his disclosures.
According to the NIA spokesperson, investigations in the case had clearly shown that the accused were members of ISIS and had sworn ‘bayat’ (allegiance) to the Islamic State and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Atif Muzaffar was the group’s Emir (leader) and was influenced by the propaganda of Dr Zakir Naik. He was found to be a frequent visitor of IS-related websites, from where he was downloading content and videos and sharing it with the others in his group.
All eight had come together to “propagate ISIS ideology and promote its activities in India”. In pursuit of this objective, Mohammad Faisal, Gauss Mohammad Khan, Atif Muzaffar, Md Danish, Md Saifulla had explored land routes. They had visited several key cities across the country, including Kolkata, Sundarbans, Srinagar, Amritsar, Wagha Border, Badmer, Jaisalmer, Mumbai, and Kozhikode, for undertaking ‘hijrah’ (migration). Gauss Mohammad Khan and Atif Muzaffar had, in fact, explored a route to cross over to Bangladesh via Sundarbans, as per the investigations.
“Faisal, Atif and Saifulla had also travelled to Kashmir in March 2016 in a bid to contact some terrorist groups that could help them to cross over to Pakistan, from where they could migrate to ISIS controlled territories in Syria. Another accused, Saifulla, was killed during exchange of fire with ATS UP on March 7, 2017, in Haji Colony. The Police had seized several weapons and incriminating documents from the group’s hideout in Haji Colony”, the agency’s press release read.
Furthermore, the NIA press release stated, “These seizures included a huge cache of arms, ammunitions, electronic gadgets and other materials required to fabricate IEDs, and documents (diaries/ literature/ handwritten documents) including an ISIS flag, eight Pistols, 4 knives, 630 rounds live cartridges of 7.65mm (32 bore), 62 rounds fired cartridges of 7.65mm, 5 gold coins and cash worth Rs 62,055/-, foreign currencies, cheques, passports, 5,Mobile phones, 2 walkie-talkie sets, 2,compass, clock timer, 9 trigger switches, 3 ‘T’ shaped cast Iron pieces, steel balls, SIM cards and a train time table.”
Statue: The Indian Penal Code; The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and The Explosive Substances Act.