Al Qaeda Cell Busted in India, 4 Held with Cross-Border Links
In a big breakthrough, Gujarat's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested four suspected terrorists associated with Al Qaeda from three cities. The suspected terrorists, who are all between 20 and 25 years old, were reportedly assigned to carry out attacks at high-profile targets around India. The arrests were made on Wednesday in Gujarat, Delhi, and Noida, revealing a larger network of terror plotting.
The men were confirmed to be linked through a social media application and had cross-border terror connections. Their arrest follows just days after a United Nations report threatened Al Qaeda's increasing presence on the Indian subcontinent.
Gujarat ATS has confirmed the arrest of two suspects in Gujarat and one each from Delhi and Noida. The four arrested men are identified as Mohd Fardeen, Sefullah Kureshi, Zeeshan Ali, and Mohd Faiq.
The investigators said that the suspects kept in touch with each other regularly via an encrypted social media platform. They were set to hit high-security targets across India, officials said. The group was found to have received orders from handlers operating across the border, according to officials. Intensive interrogation is going on, with central agencies now entering the probe.
The arrests follow the recent release of the 32nd report of the UN Security Council's Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team. The report shows Al Qaeda attempting to expand operations in South Asia through its regional offshoot, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).
Based on the report, a UN member country estimated that AQIS is actively attempting to instil terror in Bangladesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Myanmar. Al Qaeda, the UN reported, utilises Afghanistan as an ideological and logistical hub to regroup and mobilise.
The UN report also adds that the ability of Al Qaeda to carry out mass terror attacks remains low, but its determination to do so continues to be high. At present, AQIS has approximately 200 militants in the region, headed by Osama Mehmood, the emir of the organization.
Al Qaeda is found to be secretly re-establishing its network and external operations capacity, employing propaganda and cyberspace to recruit new members.
The Gujarat ATS crackdown is a timely reminder. Although India has so far managed to prevent large Al Qaeda strikes in the past few years, the attempts at reviving the network are evident. With recruits, internet-based contact, and handlers based across the border, the danger is changing.
Security agencies have to be on guard. The Al Qaeda template is evolving — from massive coordinated attacks to dispersed cells — but the threat is real and immediate.
