A 1,500 page chargesheet details how ISIS planned big strikes in Mumbai, Gujarat

A chargesheet running into 1,500 pages detailed the manner in which Islamic State operatives had planned on carrying out a series of attacks in Gujarat and Mumbai. The main target was the Jews, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad has said in its chargesheet.

Two operatives were arrested last year on the charge that they were planning lone wolf attacks. The duo was identified as Mohammad Kasim Stimberwala and Ubed Ahmed Mirza. They were planning a strike on a Jewish synagogue in the Khadia area in Gujarat.

They wanted to carry out the attack in Mumbai as more Jews lived there compared to Ahmedabad, claimed the over 1,500 pages' charge sheet, filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate R D Mehta. The charge sheet was filed in Ankleshwar as one of the suspects was held from there in October last year.

While Stimberwala worked as a laboratory technician at a hospital in Ankleshwar, Mirza was a lawyer practising in the Surat district court. Both were "highly radicalised by the Jihadi ideology of the Islamic State and actively planning lone wolf attacks on Jews", it claimed.

Abdullah el-Faisal, a radical preacher based in Jamaica, and suspected ISIS handler Shafi Armar were shown as "absconding" in the charge sheet.

The arrested duo was in touch with el-Faisal and Shafi Armar to plan attacks on Jews in India and conducted a recce of some of the targets. They were even planning to send radicalised youths outside India to take part in terrorist acts, the charge sheet said.

Though Stimberwala and Mirza tried to procure weapons through their contacts in Delhi and Lucknow, they failed, said the charge sheet.

Apart from planning a 'lone-wolf' attack on the synagogue in Khadia area here, for which Stimberwala conducted a recce, they also thought of carrying out attacks in Nariman Point area in Mumbai to maximise the impact as a considerable number of Jews lives there, it said. Both have been charged with IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 121-A (sedition) and 125 (waging war against any Asiatic power in alliance with India). They were also booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

As per the FIR lodged in October, both the accused were under the influence of El-Faisal, who was convicted of spreading hatred in the UK and deported to Jamaica. El-Faisal was subsequently detained in Jamaica on the charge of persuading youths to travel to Syria to take up jihad, the FIR said.