Three scholars — a mining engineer from NIT, an alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University with a PhD acceptance from Jamia Millia Islamia and a computer science engineer from Ghaziabad were arrested by the Special Cell for allegedly running an ISIS terror module that was to carry out attacks in Southern and Western India, police said on Monday.
The three have been identified as Mohd. Shahnawaz and Mohd. Arshad Warsi — both natives of Jharkhand, and Mohd. Rizwan Arshad, a native of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, police said.
Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) HGS Dhaliwal said, the accused took an “oath of allegiance,” to commit terrorism and were highly educated and trained.
Mr. Dhaliwal said, Shahnawaz was a graduate from Nagpur’s NIT with a Btech in mining, “not only did he have a formal engineering degree, but he did extensive reading on religious indoctrination too, his wife, Basanti Patel, converted to Islam, and was known as Mariyam.”
Bomb making
Shahnawaz learned about “blasts,” while he was reading up on mining. All the documents on building a bomb were derived from academic sources, said an officer.
“Apart from having a professional degree, he had understanding of religious teachings and is fully radicalised,” Mr Dhaliwal said.
“He learned about how blasts occur based on different kinds of chemical, all the information he gathered, was then reported further,” he said, adding that they were also given training on how to increase the potency of a bomb. “All the accused were radicalised and were at different stages,“ Mr Dhaliwal said.
An officer said, Shahnawaz’s father is a retired school teacher.
Shahnawaz came to Delhi in November 2016 to prepare for the SSC competitive examination and stayed at Abul Fazal Enclave. While he used to listen to HuT lectures at Shaheen Bagh, he decided to quit the ideology, since he was influenced by ISIS from his college days, police said.
Followed ISIS propaganda
“He followed several social media accounts and news channels that professed ISIS ideology. He met Rizwan Ali, who is currently absconding, in Shaheen Bagh in 2016,” he said, adding that they became friends. Both had several pro ISIS social media accounts.
On the other hand, Mohd Arshad Warsi, studied Mechanical Engineering at Aligarh Muslim University and was pursuing his PhD at Jamia Millia Islamia in Islamic principles and management, Mr Dhaliwal said. He said Warsi would also give home tuition to school students for science and mathematics, he added.
Arshad’s father works as a government high school teacher in Garhwa in Jharkhand. He also studied marketing and operations at Jamia Millia Islamia, police said, adding that he also works as a physics teacher at an institute in Jamia Nagar.
Regarding Mohd. Rizwan Ashraf, Mr Dhaliwal said, he was a practising maulana (religious teacher) and administered the oath to the other individuals. He stayed with his family in Prayagraj in UP. He completed a course in Arabic in 2009, an officer said. Rizwan too did a Btech in computer science from a college in Ghaziabad, police said.
Police are also looking for “sympathisers” and those with shared interests, san officer said.
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