Lucknow: Two terrorists working for ISI-backed Pakistani gangsters were arrested by UP ATS on Thursday, the duo were planning to carry out grenade attacks
at some of the targeted people in India and were getting directions from Pakistani gangsters. The arrested accused have been identified as Tushar Chauhan alias Hizbullah Ali Khan (20) of Meerut and Sameer Khan (20) of Delhi were arrested from Noida. The duo were getting directions from Pakistani handlers through social media to radicalise youths and carry out grenade attacks at some of the targeted people in India. The UP ATS investigation revealed that Pakistani gangsters Shahzad Bhatti and Abid Jatt, along with radical Pakistani YouTubers, were targeting Indian youths online. They allegedly lured the youths with money and radicalised them to disturb the communal harmony and internal peace of India. The handlers were instigating them to target and kill certain individuals, including some ex-Muslims and others as well using some modern weapons. During the initial questioning by ATS, Tushar Chauhan revealed that he became increasingly inclined towards Islam after being influenced on social media and started following Islamic traditions. He also revealed that through Instagram he came in contact with Pakistani gangster Shahzad Bhatti and Abid Jatt and later they started communicating through voice calls, video calls and push-to-talk (PTT) calls. To impress and maintain frequent contact with the handlers Chauhan also created an Instagram account named as Shahzad Bhattee which was later blocked by Instagram, he then created another fake account in the name of Shahzad Bhatti in order to obtain Bhatti's mobile number. After getting the number he started speaking directly with Bhatti through voice and video calls. Bhatti instructed Chauhan to throw grenades at certain targeted houses and kill specific individuals and for this task, advanced weapons were to be provided by Bhatti and his associates, as per ATS, Bhatti told him that Abid Jatt would contact him and provide targets. The accused was allegedly offered Rs 50,000 in advance and Rs 2.5 lakh after completing the attack. Bhatti also promised that after the attack they would arrange a passport and send him to Pakistan via Dubai and he also claimed that ISI agents Major Hamid, Major Iqbal and Major Anwar would provide targets. Sameer was also connected with Shahzad Bhatti through social media and he communicated with the handler through encrypted channels. Bhatti allegedly assigned him the task of writing "TTH" (Tehrik-ae-Taliban Hindustan) on walls. Sameer was also given directives to induct and recruit more people into the network. Both Sameer and Tushar were connected with each other through Instagram and they were conducting reconnaissance of targets given by Pakistani handlers. Both the accused had also issued death threats to some individuals on the instructions of Pakistani gangsters in which some threatening calls, Pakistani handlers were also present through conference calls. The ATS recovered 1 pistol, 5 live cartridges, 1 knife and two mobile phones from their possession. The UP ATS have registered an FIR at the ATS police station in Lucknow under relevant section of BNS, Arms Act and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). ATS will now seek police custody remand of both the accused and the investigation will continue to identify other associates and members of the network linked with Pakistani handlers.
