IS activist had plans to target VVIP convoys

Kolkata:  Abdul Raqib Qureshi, the brain behind the Islamic State (IS) terror module who was nabbed by the Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police on December 9, 2022 from Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa, had plans to carry out selective attacks on the convoys of VVIPs, sources said on Tuesday.

A pen-drive was recovered from Qureshi’s possession, which had certain files containing the pictures and other details of some top political personalities of the country.

The pen-drive also had files about the details of the locations of the residences of these VVIPs, the details of the security arrangement like the number of vehicles in their convoys, the number of security personnel attached to them and the nature of automatic weapons used by the security personnel, among others.

However, for the security purposes the STF sleuths are keeping the names of those VVIPs, whose pictures and other details were recovered from their pen-drive a secret.

From the file retrieved from the open-drive as well as through marathon interrogation of Qureshi and two of his associates, Mohammad Saddam and Syed Ahmed, the STF sleuths have also procured information that the arrested trio were planning something big before the Republic Day celebration on January 26.

From interrogation of the trio, the STF sleuths have also learnt that the IS wanted to give a message to the Indian government that they will not remain silent if the country’s security agencies do not stop the atrocities against the sympathisers of IS in India.

As per the police records, Qureshi was also arrested twice previously, first in 2009 and then in 2014. In 2009 Qureshi was arrested on an attempted murder charge. “Again in 2014, he was arrested on charges of raising slogans in support of the Taliban.

After being released from jail in 2019 and after that he became active in social media to spread the IS messages to brainwash youths and rope them in the terror outfit.

Abdul Raqib Qureshi, Mohammad Saddam and Syed Ahmed are currently in custody of STF and they will be presented at a lower court in Kolkata again on February 2.

–IANS