News Analysis India

Tag: Al Qaeda

  • Court extends period of investigation against alleged Al-Qaeda member in terror case

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has granted two more months to complete the investigation against an alleged member of terrorist outfit Al-Qaeda, arrested in connection for providing logistic and financial assistances to other members of the organisation in India and abroad.

    Special Judge Dharmender Rana allowed an application moved by Delhi police, which had sought more time to complete the probe against Sabeel Ahmed.

    The accused, a member of banned terrorist outfit Al-Qaeda in the Indian Sub-Continent (AQIS), was arrested on February 22 by the special cell of Delhi Police, for providing assistance to other members to carry out terrorist activities.

    The police had moved the application since the investigation related to the accused was still continuing and the period to file charge sheet against him was going to expire on May 22, 2021, i.e. three months from the arrest.

    If the charge sheet was not filed within three months from the arrest, or the court had not granted more time to the probe agency to complete the investigation, the accused would have been entitled to get statutory bail in the case.

    The judge observed that the prosecution had set out a case for the extension of the statutory time period to conclude the investigation. “As a cumulative effect of the aforesaid discussion, I have no hesitation in observing that the prosecution has set out a case for extension of the statutory time period to conclude investigation and the application at hand deserves to be allowed,” the judge said in an order passed on May 13.

    “However, the IO (investigating officer) is not divested of his obligation of concluding investigations expeditiously. Therefore, he is permitted to conclude the pending investigation qua accused Sabeel Ahmed till July 22, 2021,” he added.

    In its application seeking extension of the period to complete the probe by August 18, the police said the investigation could not be concluded despite efforts due to present pandemic situation. The application was opposed by advocates MS Khan and Qausar Khan, appearing for the accused, who said that the probe agency had already got enough time to complete the investigation.

    Ahmed is also an accused in suicidal terror attack at Glasgow Airport (United Kingdom) on June 30, 2007. He was deported from Saudi Arabia on August 20, 2020 and was taken into custody by NIA in another terror case lodged in Bengaluru.

    His custody was later taken by the special cell of Delhi Police in the present matter on February 22, this year.

  • NIA files chargesheet against 11 Al Qaeda members

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday chargesheeted 11 terrorists of al Qaeda who were planning to execute several terror attacks in the country on the instructions of their Pakistan- and Bangladesh-based handlers. 

    The “nefarious plans” of the terrorists were obviated by their “timely arrest”, the anti-terror agency said, adding that the accused were planning to attack among others, an India-based Bangladeshi blogger.Murshid Hasan, Mosaraf Hoseen, Mainul Mandal, Lea Yean Ahmed, Najmus Sakib, Iyakub Biswas, Samim Ansari, Abu Sufian, Atiur Rahman, Al Mamun Kamal and Abdul Momin Mandal have been named in the charge sheet under sections of the IPC, the UAPA and the Arms Act, NIA officials said.

    The case was registered by the NIA based on information about an al Qaeda-inspired module sprouting and operating in Bengal and Kerala under the leadership of Hasan.  The members of this module were in advanced stage of conspiracy to execute terrorist attacks in different parts of the country, NIA officials said.

    During raids in various parts of Bengal and Kerala on September 19, the agency arrested nine terrorists. Subsequently, two more terror operatives were arrested from Bengal on August 26 and November 1 last year.

    Hasan was in touch with al Qaeda handlers based in Pakistan and Bangladesh and had received instructions along with radical propaganda material through encrypted social media platforms from them, an NIA spokesperson said. Hasan along with his other associates conspired to radicalise and recruit more individuals into al Qaeda. 

    Gujarat resident charge-sheeted for espionageThe National Investigation Agency has filed a supplementary charge sheet against Gujarat resident Rajakbhai Kumbhar, an alleged agent of Pakistan’s spy agency ISI, NIA officials said on Friday. Kumbhar, who was arrested on September 30 last year, had visited Pakistan twice on legal documents and during his return in the course of second visit, he had come in contact with ISI operatives Hamid and joined the conspiracy with the co-accused, NIA said. The charge sheet against was filed on Thursday under sections of the IPC and the stringent UAPA.