Ghazwa-e-Hind: Al-Qaeda operatives were readying human bombs to strike Uttar Pradesh

New Delhi, July 12: The arrest and interrogation of two operatives of the Al-Qaeda linked Ansar Ghazwatul Hind revealed that the module was planning on carrying out a series of explosions in Uttar Pradesh using human bombs.

The ATS arrested two persons identified as Minhaz Ahmed and Maseeruddin. The ATS also revered a huge cache of arms and ammunition. Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said that the accused were planning on unleashing terror activities ahead of August 15 in various parts of the state including Lucknow. They were working on the instructions of Umar Halmandi, who is the chief o the Al-Qaeda module in UP. The ATS also learnt that the accused had their handlers based in Peshawar and Quetta in Pakistan.

Last year, the NIA had arrested scores of Al-Qaeda operatives from Kerala and West Bengal. It was found that the 22 members of this group were part of a chat group called Ghazwa-e-Hind.

Ghazwa-e-Hind, when loosely translated means destruction of India. It had been propagated several years back by Ilyas Kashmiri, the head of the Al-Qaeda's 313 Brigade.

Interestingly, these terror groups have attributed Ghazwa-e-Hind to the Prophet. Citing the Prophet, the group tells its cadres that it had been said that the Army would rise from the west and seize India from Islam.

These groups during its various conclaves had cited this and attributed the same to the Prophet. During recent meetings of the two terror outfits, the leaders spoke about rolling out Ghazwa-e-Hind in a big way.

The first priority would be take over Kashmir, they had said. Once this is done the entire map of India can be changed. On the Kashmir issue, the commanders pointed out that Kashmiris has been fighting the Hindus even before the birth of Pakistan. Islam and Kashmir and Islam and Pakistan are not separate, they also said.

The terrorist groups, with close links with the Al-Qaida, had resolved at a conference held in Okara district in Pakistan on November 27, 2017, that it would continue its "Ghazwa-e-Hind" irrespective of the Indo-Pak ties.