‘Mujahideen Army’ plot foiled: Accused planned to overthrow government, impose Sharia law, say UP police

The arrest of four people by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad has blown the lid off a sinister plot to form a ‘Mujahideen Army’ in the country.

The arrests followed intelligence inputs that some individuals in various districts of the state, influenced by radical Pakistani organisations, were planning to overthrow the democratically elected government in India through violent jihad and impose Sharia law through the use of arms.

“To accomplish this goal, these individuals were meeting at various locations and participating in various social media groups,” the UP police said in a statement.

The suspects were inciting people through audio chats and videos, and were collecting funds to procure weapons and other materials for carrying out terrorist acts, they said.

“These groups also harboured serious plans for the near-term targeted killings of non-Muslim religious leaders," the statement said.

Those arrested were identified as Akmal Raza, a resident of Sultanpur; Safeel Salmani alias Ali Razvi, a resident of Robertsganj; Sonbhadra Mohd. Tausif, a resident of Ghatampur in Kanpur and Qasim Ali, a resident of Sarai Qadeem in Rampur.

They have been charged under Section 148/152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

During the interrogation, the accused told the investigators that they were planning to wage jihad against the “infidels” for the “oppression and atrocities” on Muslims and to implement Sharia law. 

To achieve this goal, the accused were radicalising and uniting people with a similar mindset, police said, adding that due to their fanatic religious mindset, they were planning terrorist activities to eliminate many people by identifying them.

“For these tasks, they were collecting, writing and propagating many violent Jihadi literature, and for this purpose, they were forming their own violent group for which they were making all efforts,” said the police statement.