Islamic State module busted in Gujarat's Porbandar, woman among 4 accused held

Jun 10, 2023

AHMEDABAD: The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Gujarat Police busted an Islamic State (IS) module in the coastal town of Porbandar and arrested four accused, including a woman.

While three youths from Srinagar were held, a woman from Surat was nabbed.

ATS had received input that the arrested accused were part of the ISIS terror module. They identified them and tracked their movements. Under the leadership of DIG Deepan Bhadran and SP Sunil Joshi, the operation to bust the terror module started in Porbandar late on Friday.

The arrested accused were planning to escape to Afghanistan for training and subsequently join the Islamic State affiliate -- Islamic State of Khorasan (ISKP). They had reached Porbandar and planned to hire a boat to go to Afghanistan.

According to the police, several jihadi literature were recovered from three Kashmiri youths during the raid. They also recovered some banner flags of ISKP, videos and audio clips of Kashmiri youth giving speeches to 'Ameer ul momineen' (Commander of the Faithful and Leader) from their mobile phones.

The police seized Islamic literature from the mobile phone and tablet of Sumaira Banu at her house in Surat.

Before the police arrested the accused, they were working as labourers in Porbandar. According to the police, they were supposed to work as captains and GPS coordinators on fishing boats. Along with this, the police have also recovered some weapons from them.

For the past one year, the arrested accused were in contact with terrorist outfits like IS. Another person from Kashmir, Zubair Mohammad, was also scheduled to travel with the four accused to Afghanistan.

Police launched a manhunt to nab Zubair Mohammad, who is absconding.