Lagatar24 Desk
Ahmedabad, June 10: Five people, including a woman from Porbandar, have been detained by the Gujarat Police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad on suspicion of having ties to the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), an affiliate of the Islamic State that has been designated a foreign terrorist organisation.
The arrests were conducted as part of a special operation, the state police said on Saturday, who also noted that raids are still going on.
Director General of Police (DGP) Gujarat Vikas Sahay said today during a press conference that the Gujarat Police’s ATS officials had received information that three terrorists connected to the ISKP planned to leave India via 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,” the DGP said.
“This information was received by the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Gujarat Police. The information was properly processed and further developed,” the police official said.
“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 said.
The three people detained in Porbandar have been identified as Ubaid Nasir Mir, Hanan Hayat Shawl, and Mohammad Hajim Shah, all of whom are Srinagar locals, according to DGP Vikas Sahay.
The Gujarat DGP Sahay claimed that two more individuals connected to the ISK were detained after questioning the detained trio. They have been identified as Zubair Ahmed Munshi, a resident of Srinagar, and one woman Sumerabanu Mohammad Hanif Malek, a local of Surat.
Five alleged terrorists were detained, according to Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghvi, who also commended the Gujarat Police ATS and Surat Crime Branch for the arrests.
“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 said.
He praised Gujarat Police for their efforts and stated that the ATS would tell the public of its investigation’s findings once it was complete.
The accused were interrogated about their terrorist operations throughout Friday night, according to the DGP.
It was ascertained that they were preparing to flee outside India to join the ISKP and were in contact with each other for the past year. They were allegedly being given messages from their handler Abu Hamza.
ATS sources state that a special unit of the ATS has been engaged in special operations in Porbandar and the adjacent areas for the past few days.
DIG Dipen Bhadran, along with other officials, have been in Porbandar since yesterday and were in charge of the ATS’s special operation. After the ATS had finished the operation, the officers’ convoy arrived at the Special Operations Group (SOG) office in Porbandar.
ATS sources included the operations were carried out by officers including SP Sunil Joshi, DySP KK Patel, and DySP Shankar Chowdhury.
