Sleeper Cells in India? The Madhya Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad along with NIA has arrested 16 persons and booked them under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and other relevant provisions of the IPC for their links to the terrorist group Hizb-Ut-Tahrir (HUT).
They were arrested after evidence was found that the suspects were associated with the terrorist organization.
The MP police spokesman claimed the organization was aiming to topple the democratic system in India and replace it with Sharia (Islamic law regime).
The spokesman said those arrested included a gym trainer, teacher, auto driver, tailor, computer technician, businessman, and software engineer, and claimed they used to organize secret combat training camps in forest areas.
They received training from skilled trainers from Hyderabad, he said.
Besides, they used to deliver provocative speeches at religious meetings and distribute religious literature to rope in more youths, said the spokesman.
Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra said that all the suspects were under ATS radar. Mishra said that objectionable literature, laptops, pen drives, and hard disks were recovered from their procession.
Of these, 10 were arrested from Bhopal’s Shahjahanabad, Aishbagh, Lalghati, and Pipalani areas, while one was nabbed from Chhindwara city. 5 others were arrested from Hyderabad.
Last year, several people were arrested from Bhopal for their alleged links with the banned group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), and jihadi literature and electronic devices seized from them.
The three-month-long operation has resulted in zeroing in on these alleged HuT activists before picking them, sources said. HuT was founded in Jerusalem in 1952 and has a footprint in 50 countries. The organization was said to be more dangerous than ISIS.
“Terrorism grows only because of the policy of appeasement. There is no place for any terrorist, goon, and crook on the soil of Madhya Pradesh,” MP CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan had earlier said as he launched action against radicalism in the state.
