New Delhi: The posters praising Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) that were found in Srinagar’s Bunpora Nowgam area in October and have now emerged as a key part of the Red Fort blast investigation warned against “sheltering Indian predators” and doing things that go against Sharia.
“Some people shelter these Indian predators in their shops, which obstructs our work; therefore we want to say openly to those people: stop, otherwise strict action will be taken against them as well,” read the posters, now accessed by ThePrint.
They were signed by ‘Commander Hanzala Bhai’, dated 17 October.
These posters gave a vital clue to the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Police, who began to probe their origin and arrested three overground workers (OGWs) and a cleric from Shopian. These arrests and the raids that followed led to the unraveling of the plot and the players behind the high-intensity blast that rocked Delhi Monday evening.
ThePrint had reported how local police had come across the posters—praising the JeM terror group and threatening “revenge attacks”—on the morning of 19 October on the outskirts of Srinagar.
The interrogation of the cleric, Maulvi Irfan Ahmad, led the investigators to Muzammil Shakeel in Faridabad as well as resulted in raids and arrests of Adeel Ahmed Rather and Shaheen Shahid. Sources in the security establishment say that this module is associated with the JeM and the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, a J&K based specific wing of al Qaeda.
“I hope you are all well. Whatever we have communicated to you so far, please act on it. We have been watching for some time and see that you are still engaged in crimes; so we just want to say: stop doing those things that are against Sharia, otherwise we will take action according to Sharia,” the poster read.
“Some people assist those involved in these activities—we want to tell them as well: stop, this is the last warning. You will no longer deserve forgiveness, and, God willing, when the time comes they will be ready to give their lives,” it said, adding another threat to people in the Bunpora area “who seat these Indian predators in their shops”.
On Monday evening, Umar Nabi, who worked at Al Falah medical school in Faridabad, allegedly drove a white 120 that blew up near the Red Fort Metro station. Hours before the blast, the J&K Police along with its Haryana counterpart had raided the premises of Shakeel working at Al Falah, also from Kashmir, and seized 2,900 kg of explosive materials, including 353 kg of ammonium nitrate.
Investigators suspect that ammonium nitrate was used in Monday’s deadly blast and also probing into whether it was suicidal or accidental. The toll now stands at 13.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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