ISIS operative brothers case: ATS conducts probe in Bhavnagar, interrogation from acquaintances in Ahmedabad likely

Bhavnagar/Ahmedabad/Rajkot: The Anti Terrorist Squad of Gujarat police today conducted investigation in Bhavnagar in connection with the arrest of the two alleged ISIS operative brothers, Vaseem Ramodia and Naeem Ramodia nabbed by it from Rajkot and Bhavnagar a few days ago.

An ATS official today said that the duo was first taken to the SOG office in Bhavnagar and from there they were taken to the Prabhutalav area from where Naeem , younger of the two associated with scrap business, was nabbed from his flat.They were taken to places like Ghogha gate, Court Road, Diwanpara, Shishuvihar and Haluria among others in connection with the investigation. Some people known to them were also interrogated.

He said that the ATS is also likely to interrogate 3 to 4 acquaintances of Vaseem in Ahmedabad. It is likely to conduct search operation at various places based on the information received from the duo which on its remand till March 10.
It is learnt that it has been revealed during the interrogation of the two ISIS operative brothers that dozens of the sympathizers and operatives of the terror outfit were present across Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Vaseem (30) was nabbed from Rajkot while Naeem (28) was caught from Bhavnagar.

The telephone conversation audio clips between the two brothers have revealed that they were very eager to carry out a successful terror attack as soon as possible to ‘prove their point’ to his ISIS handler. In one of the clips Vaseem is even heard to be complaining about the ‘slow pace’ of ISIS chief Abu Bakar Al Baghdadi. They had tried to hack one person to death in Chotila while attempted faile bomb attacks on shops here. They wanted to avenge the killings of their Muslim brethren.

The ATS has reportedly sent the evidences and materials including the clips of their conversation with their handler, gunpowder, laptop, mobile phones and various downloaded materials including IED (bomb) making procedure, ISIS related info and literature recovered from them during late-night raids of February 25 from Bhavnagar and Rajkot, to forensic science laboratory (FSL) for various tests and corroboration.The duo have been booked under section 121 of the IPC ( Waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India.) which has provision of capital punishment and life imprisonment, and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and other relevant sections of various acts.

Primary investigation revealed that they had come in contact with ISIS operatives online through various social medial like the Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, Imo, Whatsapp etc around 2-3 years ago and become influenced by their ideology and were in touch with some handler, who is yet to be identified. The ATS was keeping a watch on them for the past around 3 months and when their activities become more serious It was decided to nab them.They had tried some ‘lone wolf’ (doing it alone) terror attacks including hacking someone to death in Chotila and torching some vehicles but had not succeeded. Had they been successful, they could have been taken in to the ‘inner circle’ of the ISIS.

The father of the duo Arif Ramodia, a retired employee of Saurashtra university is a popular local umpire associated with SCA and have done umpiring in numerous district level matches.

DeshGujarat