In pursuit of radicals, cases of wrongful arrest

The Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad says it has managed to track sympathisers down before they could venture deep into their pursuit of working for ISIS

The Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) said it is deradicalising 10 youth from Maharashtra who are ISIS sympathisers and were drifting towards the agendas of the terror-outfit. They, however, refused to divulge details of their location or whether they were part of the same module wherein Mudabbir Shaikh has been arrested for being the chief recruiter.

The ATS managed to track them down before they could venture deep into their pursuit of working for the ISIS. “With the help of maulanas and community leaders this youth are being deradicalised. We are keeping a watch on other youth as well. We have a lab, like the Mumbai police’s social media lab, which helps them to know the pulse of the city. This also includes searching for inflammatory materials on the Internet,” said an ATS source.

“We are using our ATS lab to keep a tab on online activities of ISIS. We haven’t increased our manpower over the period of three years, but technology has been upgraded. A software is in place which helps us keep check on ISIS activities,” added the ATS source.

The source said 20-year-old Rizwan Ahmed Ali Nawazuddin, alias Khalid, had tried to recruit more youth, who are now under the ATS scanner. It is learnt that Nawazuddin, along with some of the other accused caught in a joint operation by the NIA and ATS, were studying how to make bombs. However, ATS found that they had not received any physical training and were far from reaching the stage of executing terror strikes on Indian soil.

When asked an ATS officer said, “Some materials used for making explosives were found during our crackdown in two states. Their acts violated the UAPA Act. The ISIS had given them four works. One to spreading ISIS ideology and gathering support, second to recruit, third to find more persons who can be sent to ISIS for fighting the war and, finally, for making preparations, including terror attacks, to face any eventuality in India.”

The ATS is investigating the case to find out if the Kalyan module of the ISIS, where four youth had left for Syria, has any links to the present module. They are also checking if they are anywhere linked to Maulana Hafij Mujib (26) from Pusad town in Yavatmal who had been arrested last year for recruiting youth for Al Qaeda. However, the ATS said that this module is different from the module of Mohammad Sirajuddin, an Indian Oil executive who was picked up last year for being an ISIS recruiter. Sirajuddin had managed to indoctrinate a minor girl from Pune who is being deradicalised.

Mistaken Identity There have been cases where people have found themselves on the radar of intelligence agencies because of mistaken identities. A glance at some of these cases show that the wrong source of information is often the reason that sends the investigators to chase wrong people.

“Agencies taking action against anybody depends upon factual matrix of individual case. It is not like police arrests any random person in any case. Nobody in this country would have felt safe if this was the situation,” said advocate Mubin Solkar who has handled several criminal cases, including some matters of mistaken identity.

“Sometimes secret information received by the agencies is either misplaced or is not very accurate due to which the agencies get misled,” he added.

Talking about one such case, he said in 2010 one Abdul Samad was arrested by the ATS and it was widely reported in the press that he is a suspect of the German Bakery blast. Though Abdul Samad was arrested in connection with the seizure of arms and officially it was never stated that he is a suspect in the blast case, but the police interrogated him for the blast case also because somebody like him was noticed in a CCTV footage. During the investigation, it was found that Abdul Samad was travelling at the time of the blast. “The ATS was truthful enough to not arrest him in that case,” Mr Solkar said.

According to advocate Solkar, another example is of Mohammed Afroz, the first person to be arrested under Pota in 2002. He went to London a few times for pilot training, but could not complete his course. “When he came back to India he was afraid to face his family that they would scold him for wasting time and money. So he stayed at a hotel in Vashi and was picked up by the police in one of the routine raids. After going through his passport entries and documents in his possession, they formed the conclusion that he was part of an Al Qaeda module and was going to crash planes in some world renowned sites in UK, US and Australia. They arrested him but could not prove charges and ultimately he was acquitted from all charges,” he said.

Another lawyer Shahid Nadeem Ansari said that sometimes cases of mistaken identity happens with unknown people like last year on Republic Day a group of about 10 youths from Malegaon had came to suburban Kurla in Mumbai because of extended holiday in weekend. They came to their friend’s place where two persons were living on rent. But when people saw new faces coming to that room in Kurla, using high-tech mobile phones and laptops; they suspected them and informed police. “The boys were allowed to go only due verification from Malegaon,” he said.