Gzb cops to seek long custody of 6 held over UAPA

Ghaziabad police arrested six suspects linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed for anti-national activities, seeking extended custody to investigate their online communications.

A day after the Ghaziabad police arrested six suspects for suspected anti-national activities from Nahal village near Masuri, officials on Friday said they will obtain long police custody remand of the suspects to get more information about certain messages, chats, videos, and pictures that surfaced during their initial investigation.

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Deputy commissioner of police (rural) Surendra Nath Tiwari said that the suspects, Shavez alias Jihadi, 20, Mohammad Junaid, 23, Mohammad Fardeen, 22, Ikram Ali, 36, Fazru Dafedar, 46, and Mohammad Javed, 45, were allegedly inspired by the ideology of terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed and were trying to join it.

“We have come across certain messages they were posting on social media. With these messages, the suspects tried to impress upon the outfit that they were convinced by its ideology and willing to expand their network here if allowed to join. We have also learned that suspect Javed’s uncle went to Pakistan about 30 years ago, and his current whereabouts are unknown. We will inquire further into this,” DCP Tiwari said.

The police also registered an FIR under stringent sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The FIR stated that the police retrieved chats, photos and videos of the outfit’s training camps from their phones.

“On February 9, Shavez accepted a message request and chatted with one Aftab Alam from the Farhatullah Ghori group. Shavez also sent a request to join the outfit’s group. In another chat, he sent a confirmation message that he had purchased a sword,” the FIR read.

The Union ministry of home affairs has identified Ghori among the list of individual terrorists under UAPA and Jaish-e-Mohammed as a terrorist organisation in the first schedule of UAPA.

Officials said that one of the chats indicated a planned murder as well. “Based on the findings, we will now take the suspects into long police custody remand to know more about the chats, messages, videos, and pictures,” the DCP said.

The FIR was registered at the Masuri police station on Thursday. The police said they made the arrests after the social media cell tracked online posts originating from the Masuri.