Delhi police chargesheet suspected al-Qaeda terrorist

Zishan Ali made provocative speeches to recruit youths and establish a base for the terror outfit

The Delhi police on Monday chargesheeted suspected al-Qaeda terrorist Zishan Ali in a case of allegedly making provocative speeches to recruit youths here and establish a base for the terror outfit. Ali was deported to India from Saudi Arabia last August.

Taking the investigation report on record, Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma posted the case to February 2 for consideration on taking cognisance.

The police arrested Ali after searching for him over a year after three alleged al-Qaeda operatives were arrested in 2015.

According to the police, Zishan, a resident of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, operated from Saudi Arabia. He is believed to be married to the sister of Dr. Sabeel Ahmed, a cousin of the 2007 Glasgow international airport (U.K.) attack mastermind Kafeel Ahmed, who had moved from Bengaluru to Saudi Arabia in 2010-11.

Arrest warrant

The police secured an arrest warrant against Zishan in June 2016. His name was also mentioned in a chargesheet filed against the alleged al-Qaeda in Indian Sub-continent (AQIS) accused persons. Zishan’s brother Syed Mohammed Arshiyan, who was last spotted in Saudi Arabia, allegedly has links with international terror outfits. He is also wanted by the Indian probe agencies.

The police first came to know about the two brothers from AQIS accused and Cuttack-based cleric Abdul Rehman, who was arrested in December 2015 in coordination with the Odisha police.

Training in Pak.

During interrogation, Rehman allegedly disclosed that he knew Arshiyan since 2003. He later came in contact with his brother Zishan. The accused disclosed that through Arshiyan, Dr. Ahmed and other Saudi Arabia-based contacts, he had sent some young men to Pakistan for training in terror camps there.

Intelligence agencies had started working on the AQIS module soon after a video by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri surfaced in September 2014. It announced the outfit’s formation. About a year later, the police busted a module involving some residents of Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal and this led to further arrests.

They found that AQIS chief Maulana Asim Umar alias Shaan-ul Haq was also a resident of Deepa Sarai in Sambhal. It is suspected that he had crossed over to Pakistan in 1998.