Shivamogga stabbing accused has links with banned terrorist organisation JeM

BENGALURU: Mohammed Zabiullah (30), the main accused in the stabbing of Prem Singh (20) during the Independence Day clashes which broke out over a poster of Hindutva ideologue Veer Damodar Savarkar at Ameer Ahmed Circle in Shivamogga,  has reportedly been “indoctrinated by the Pakistan-based banned terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) to engineer violence in the state,” said highly placed sources.

Zabiullah was arrested along with Tanveer Ahmed (22), Nadeem Faisal (25) and Abdul Rehman (25) in connection with the case. “Zabiullah allegedly has several audios and videos of JeM founder, India baiter and UN-designated terrorist - Maulana Masood Azhar, JeM financier and recruiter - Farhatullah Ghauri alias Abu Sufiyan, and former chief of al Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), Sanaul Haq alias Asim Umar, who was killed by the US-Afghan forces in Afghanistan in September 2019, among other terrorists and terrorist organisations in his phone.

“He has also downloaded a book on jihad,” said sources on condition of anonymity. His phone is now in the custody of the police and will be sent for forensic examination. “Since Zabiullah is undergoing treatment at McGann Hospital (he was shot in the leg by the police after he tried to escape), the police have not been able to obtain his custody from the court for interrogation. It is not clear who is indoctrinating him using these highly-inflammable audios and videos,” said sources.

‘Jihadists using social media to amplify propaganda’

The Shivamogga police on Friday had invoked the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against the four accused for committing the crime “under the influence of fundamentalist ideology,” SP, Shivamogga B M Laxmi Prasad had stated in a communique.

Zabiullah is the second alleged radicalised youth arrested by the police in Karnataka in less than a month’s time. In July, the Central Crime Branch (CCB), Bengaluru police on a tip-off from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) arrested Akhtar Hussain (25) from Assam in Bengaluru. “In both these cases, jihadist recruiters have allegedly been found to use a network of accounts on social media platforms to amplify terrorist propaganda material targeting religious minorities in India with the aim of using the ‘recruits’ for domestic violence,” said sources.

The arrests of Hussain, Zabiullah in Karnataka, and Meer Anaas Ali - an engineering student from Ambur in Tamil Nadu, who was allegedly being indoctrinated by ISIS to carry out domestic attacks have raised serious concerns about the recruitment drive of pan-Islamist terrorist groups from within the country.

The preliminary details following the detention of ISIS suicide bomber Mashrabkon Azamov by the Russian FSB have reportedly revealed that while the ISKP head hunters from Pakistan are recruiting in India to perpetrate communal violence, there is a heightened threat perception from other global terror outfits. JeM has been behind several terror attacks in India, including the Pulwama attack in February 2019. According to Central counter-terrorism agencies, Gha­uri has funded terror attacks in India and is inv­olved in recruitment, and training on behalf of al Qaeda and LeT.