In a major revelation, the two Islamic State suspects nabbed from Rajkot and Bhavnagar on Sunday have confessed their plans of planting bombs in the densely populated Trikon Baug and Gundawadi areas of Rajkot this week.
According to a Times of India report, the duo, during the interrogation, have revealed the names of at least 40 other persons from across Gujarat, including Ahmedabad, who were engaged with them regarding IS activities across the globe.
“We are conducting verification of these persons to know the extent of their indoctrination,” an official was quoted by Times of India as saying.
On Monday, the suspects Waseem Ramodiya and his brother Naeem were remanded to the custody of the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) till March 10.
During the interrogation, Waseem told the ATS that his wife Shahzeen used to taunt him as “impotent” for not being able to execute the “tasks” given to him by their handlers who operated with the names “Big Cat” and “onegoal1aim” through the username @katakat313.
According to the report, the IS handlers, suspected to be Indians, were communicating with Waseem through a social media platform in an end-to-end encrypted code.
He further told that his wife’s taunts got on to his nerves and he finally went to Chotila on January 15. However, he stopped 10 km away from the town, fearing that he would be caught. The brother then decided to torch vehicles in Bhavnagar.
“However, they again feared getting caught and did not set the vehicles ablaze,” said an ATS official.
Then, as per “instructions”, the two gathered fire crackers from Rajkot’s Sadar Bazaar and a nine-volt battery to assemble IEDs. The IEDs were to be planted at Trikon Baug and Gundawadi areas on the week ending March 4.
The report cited ATS officials saying that the PDF files downloaded by the accused brothers had details about lone-wolf attack at a Bangalore-based restaurant by Alamzeb Afridi, an Indian Mujahideen suspect.
