ISIS suspects targeted Muslim sect as well, says NIA

BHOPAL: Four self-styled ISIS sympathizers were chargesheeted by NIA on Tuesday for the Ujjain train blasts that injured 10 people in March this year. According to the agency, the accused not only shot dead an innocent teacher for “target practice” but also tried to blow up Barelvi Muslims.
The NIA chargesheet says that the four planted a bomb at a religious procession of the Barelvi Muslims in UP’s Unnao district in December 2016, but it failed to explode.They fixed a new timer and used the same bomb on the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger on March 7.
After planting the bomb on the train at Bhopal station, they took a picture and sent it to someone called Abu Hishaam for transmission to ISIS, says NIA.
Before this, they made five dry runs of planting bombs and even gunned down a teacher in Kanpur in cold blood to test their marksmanship, the NIA says. The accused — Md Atif Muzaffar, 22, Md Danish, 27, Syed Mir Hussain, 19, Ghaus Md Khan, 56, and Saifullah (killed in Lucknow encounter) —had taken the oath of allegiance to ISIS several times, says the chargesheet.
“In August 2016, Atif carried out the trial of the first bomb at his house in Katripiparkheda, Jazmau, Kanpur. In September 2016, a second pipe bomb was made and blasted in an open field. A third bomb was tried at Ghatampur Road besides the railway lines in Kanpur during the same time,” says the NIA chargesheet.
On October 11, 2016, Atif went to Lucknow and along with Saifullah and planted the bomb near Ramlila ground but it did not go off, NIA says. “Atif made a fifth bomb in the second week of December to use against the ‘Bara Rabi Al Alwal’ of Barelvi Muslims in Unnao. Atif made this bomb with a 6-inch pipe and took it to Unnao. This bomb did not explode,” it adds.
It was Atif who sold his ancestral property and used Rs 70 lakh from the sale to fund the group’s terror activities, says the central agency. They repeatedly tried to migrate to Islamic State territory and travelled to Kolkata, Sunderbans, Panna, Kashmir and Kerala to find a way to Syria, but failed.
Ghaus Md Khan, who was Barelvi by birth and a former Air Force personnel, then convinced them to carry out Jihad in India, says the NIA. It was his idea to move from Kanpur to Lucknow, where they rented a place to prepare bombs, says the chargesheet, adding that Atif footed the rent.
Atif, Danish and Hussain were arrested from Piparia in Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh on March 7 this year, just hours after the blast.