AHMEDABAD: As a part of the ongoing anti-terror operation, the Gujarat ATS on July 30 arrested a 33-year-old Jharkhand-native woman from Bengaluru for her alleged role in bolstering Al Qaeda's influence in India.
The accused, Shama Parveen, is believed to have been integral to AQIS’s social media propaganda machinery. The ATS collaborated with Bengaluru police to identify and locate Parveen. A joint team conducted a raid at Parveen’s residence in Manorayanapalya locality and arrested her.
Parveen is a degree holder and has been living in Bengaluru for three years with her brother, who is a software engineer.
ATS DIG Sunil Joshi said, "During the remand interrogation of the four previously arrested terrorists, the name of the female suspect surfaced. Our investigation revealed her links to Pakistan, following which we launched a deeper probe. It was also found that she was in contact with Mohammad Faiq from Delhi."
“We began investigating the account named ‘Stranger Nation-2’ and soon identified several related Facebook pages. The Instagram account by the same name was particularly popular. As we traced its origin, the name of Shama Parveen emerged as the individual behind it,” said DIG Sunil Joshi.
The Instagram account ‘strangers_nation02’ and Facebook pages ‘Strangers of The Nation’ and ‘Strangers of The Nation 2’, operated by Shama Parveen, were found circulating jihadi slogans issued by Maulana Asim Umar, leader of the banned terrorist group Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).
"These posts glorified armed rebellion, propagated Ghazwa-e-hind, and promoted myth-based violence and terrorist acts against the Indian government," the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) stated.
"In addition to this, the social media platforms were used to broadcast radical sermons of Al-Qaeda’s key ideologue, Imam Anwar al-Awlaki, aiming to incite Indian Muslim youth into launching attacks under false and inflammatory narratives. A video of Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lahore’s Lal Masjid was also shared, openly urging Muslims to forcibly topple the Indian government and spread hatred nationwide," the ATS further added.
"Based on this material evidence, Shama Parveen, daughter of Shimlu Ansari, was arrested from Bangalore on 29 July 2025 under transit remand and brought to the ATS office for legal proceedings. During the forensic examination of her phone, several other suspicious social media and email accounts were uncovered, including signs of contact with foreign individuals and entities. A deeper investigation is currently underway," the statement read.
Of the four terrorists arrested by Gujarat ATS on July 23, two hailed from Ahmedabad and Modasa, while the other two were from Delhi and Noida.
They were actively promoting the ideology of AQIS, the South Asian wing of Al-Qaeda and their activities included spreading extremist propaganda through social media platforms and suspicious encrypted applications.