Gonda man among 2 held, ATS says ‘linked with al-Qaeda outfit’

The UP Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Sunday said that they have arrested two men allegedly associated with terror outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an auxiliary unit of al-Qaeda Sunday, following intelligence inputs. The accused were identified as Saddam Sheikh (38) and Rizwan Khan (23).

A statement issued by the ATS said that Saddam, a native of Gonda district, used to work as a driver in a private company in Bengaluru. “During social media monitoring and electronic surveillance, it surfaced that Saddam Sheikh was quite active on social media and posted radical things in favour of terror outfits. He was called to the ATS office for questioning after being served a notice. He himself accepted that he is influenced by Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind and Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani… He said he wanted to become a mujahid,” said the statement.

“Saddam also said that terrorists like Osama bin Laden, Zakir Musa, Riyaz Naikoo, Naved Jatt and Sameer Tiger were his idols. In his phone, photos and videos related to these terrorists have also been recovered,” said the statement.

Another statement by the ATS said that another accused Rizwan Khan a native of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir, was arrested after it was found that “he was spreading terrorist propaganda on social media platforms”.

It said that Rizwan was active on social media and sharing “radical content and taking on board similar minded people for his operations”. He was working at a meat unit in UP’s Unnao. “He was called to the ATS office for questioning after being served a notice… He accepted posting radical content on social media and that guns and militants attract him. He also wanted to spread jihad, and bring about rule under the Islamic law and was influenced by Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind,” said the statement.

Source » indianexpress