NEW DELHI: The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the Delhi Crime Branch team are believed to have identified a connection between the terrorist Mohammad Rizwan and Mohammad Sarik, who serves as the district secretary of the Samajwadi Party (SP).
This comes after his arrest on September 29. The suspected terrorist was believed to be involved in radicalizing young people from Azamgarh and Prayagraj by engaging with them on social media and sharing anti-India videos. These videos also reportedly promoted the idea of establishing an Islamic nation.
The ATS team, consisting of six members, arrived in Prayagraj at 7:30 am, and the interrogation continued for several hours. According to sources, the terrorist Mohammad Rizwan had sought shelter at the house of an SP leader. In order to gather information about Rizwan, a search operation was initiated at the SP leader’s residence in Naini’s Chakdodi area.
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The Naini Thana Police in Prayagraj were present during the ATS operation, and they cordoned off the area from all directions. Notably, the anti-terror squad had apprehended a person named Shailesh Kumar, also known as Shailendra Singh Chauhan, in Lucknow on September 26 on charges of allegedly spying for the Inter-Service Intelligence.
The UP government established an Anti-Terror Squad in 2007 to deal with terrorist activities within the state. Since then, the Anti-Terror Squad of UP has been functioning as a specialized unit within the UP Police.