Ahmedabad: In a major breakthrough, the Gujarat ATS has arrested four individuals linked to the terror outfit Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) during a large-scale anti-terror operation carried out in Ahmedabad, New Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh. The accused were reportedly recruiting people through WhatsApp.

It is learnt that all four were connected to Al-Qaeda’s radical ideology and were actively engaged in promoting it through social media platforms and certain suspect applications.

As per reports, the accused were adding people to extremist groups via social media platforms like WhatsApp. Gujarat ATS teams had recovered incriminating chats from these platforms, which had already put the suspects on the radar for some time. Following sustained surveillance, the Gujarat ATS launched an operation and successfully apprehended the four terrorists today.

Sources in the Gujarat ATS said the four had been in touch with Al-Qaeda’s network for quite some time. They reportedly joined online groups and maintained regular communication with handlers, sharing and spreading extremist views. Surveillance teams tracked their activities and found they were also discussing developments specific to Gujarat, which ultimately led to their arrest. DeshGujarat