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As part of its crackdown on an alleged Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) module, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad on Tuesday arrested a 30-year-old woman — the fifth accused in the case. Identified as Shama Parveen, the accused, who hails from Jharkhand, had been living in Bengaluru for the last five years. She was allegedly disseminating “extremist content” through social media platforms.
Parveen’s arrest follows arrests of four other alleged members of the module — Mohd Fardeen from Ahmedabad, Mohd Faiq from Delhi, Zeeshan Ali from Noida, and Sefullah Kureshi from Modasa in Gujarat’s Aravalli. These four were booked under multiple sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for allegedly promoting radical content linked to the AQIS, via Instagram and Facebook.
A Gujarat ATS team, led by DySP Virjeetsinh Parmar, with assistance from central agencies and the Bengaluru city police, traced and arrested Parveen on Tuesday. She was produced before the 8th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) court in Bengaluru and Judge Vishwanath granted Gujarat Police a transit warrant.
According to the Gujarat ATS, a preliminary examination of Parveen’s mobile phone revealed she was allegedly operating Instagram and Facebook accounts flagged during the investigations carried out earlier, and had uploaded speeches of AQIS leaders like Maulana Asim Umar and Anwar al-Awlaki that allegedly promoted “violent jihad” and “Ghazwa-e-Hind”. She had also allegedly shared videos of Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lahore’s Lal Masjid that, officials claim, called for an armed struggle to overthrow the Indian government and foment communal discord.
Officials further alleged that Parveen was also in contact with individuals linked to the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) through social media and that her online activities were aimed at “radicalising individuals and gaining support for extremist movements”.
Following her arrest, Parveen was brought to Ahmedabad on a transit remand for further legal proceedings. Officials said that a more detailed examination of her phone also brought to the fore other social media handles, email accounts, and allegedly revealed suspected links with foreign and Pakistan-based entities. Intelligence and police teams in Karnataka are now probing her local associations and any other wider network that she may have had.
According to Gujarat ATS officials, investigations into the online activities of the other accused had led them to an Instagram account, ‘sharyat_ya_shahadat’, allegedly operated by Mohd Faiq that had reposted provocative content from accounts titled ‘strangers_nation02’, ‘Strangers Of The Nation’ and ‘Strangers Of The Nation 2’.
A digital forensic probe further allegedly led them to Parveen, according to officials, who also said that Parveen was staying with her brother, who works for a private firm.
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