No politics please: UP’s deep rooted problem of radicalisation, terror have to be cleaned up

New Delhi, July 13: A war of words broke out after former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav reportedly said that he does not trust the state police. The comments are said to have been made after the arrest of two terrorists in UP.

Yadav said that he cannot trust the UP police and especially the BJP government. His party however said that an edited clip is in circulation.

Terror modules in UP are nothing new. One can trace the birth of the Indian Mujahideen to UP when the outfit announced itself following a blast at a court premises. Investigations conducted painstakingly over the years found the Azamgarh connect to the Indian Mujahideen.

As recently as 2018, the National Investigation Agency busted an ISIS inspired module in Amroha, a city in north-western Uttar Pradesh. Intelligence Bureau officials tell OneIndia that Amroha is shaping up to be the next Azamgarh. When the agencies were chasing the Indian Mujahideen, it was found that a bulk of the members were from Azamgarh. In fact if one traces the IM to its early days, it can be said that the outfit took shape in Azamgarh.

Azamgarh had become a hot spot for terror. Officials say the atmosphere in Azamgarh was conducive for operatives and hence they were able to carry out their activities and return there safely and hide. In Amroha, the agencies find a similar trend and it has been found that the Moulvis have been driving the modules. In one recent case relating to a Lashkar-e-Tayiba module in Haryana, it was found that funds were being channelised through hawala transactions, which a Moulvi oversaw.

In the latest case, it was found that operatives of the Al-Qaeda linked Ansar Ghazwatul Hind were 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.

In 2019, the chief of the Al Qaeda in the Sub Continent, Asim Umar referred to as Shaikh Umar was killed in Afghanistan. Umar took over as the chief of the Al-Qaeda in the Sub-Continent (AQIS) in 2014. He has been referred to as a Pakistani national, but tracing his origins suggests that he was born in Sambal in Uttar Pradesh.

IB officials had been studying the antecedents of Umar since the launch of the India outfit and his origin has been tracked to Uttar Pradesh.

Officials, OneIndia spoke with said that the radicalisation problem in UP is deep rooted. Hence, it is best to let the agencies do their job and not politicise such arrests. The bust by the UP ATS is a major one as the operatives were planning suicide strikes. Let the cops do their job and in the interest of national security it would be best from making comments on such issues, the official cited above also said.