Engineering graduate who fled Bengaluru in 2013 figures on MHA list of 23 designated terrorists
Mohammed Shahid Faisal, alias Zakir Ustad, now 42, went missing as a 28-year-old, following the unearthing of an alleged LeT-linked terror plot.
Mohammed Shahid Faisal was named in 2024 as accused number six in the Rameshwaram Cafe blast case. (Photo by special arrangement) The name of a tech-savvy engineering graduate from Bengaluru who had fled the country in the wake of a 2012 terrorism conspiracy case has figured on the MHA’s new list of 23 “designated” terrorists, released on July 4.
Mohammed Shahid Faisal, alias Zakir Ustad, now 42, went missing as a 28-year-old, following the unearthing of an alleged LeT-linked terror plot. Faisal, whose parents had settled in Bengaluru after moving from Kerala, has been identified in recent years as the online handler for terror incidents in south India since 2020, including the Mangaluru auto-rickshaw blast in November 2023 and Bengaluru Rameshwaram Cafe blast in March 2024.
In the MHA list, Faisal has been described as being of “Pakistani nationality (originally Indian, currently active in Rawalpindi) and is affiliated with LeT, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS”.
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