After the latest development, the intelligence agencies are learnt to have quickened their search for seven other suspected hardcore terrorists on NIA’s 'most wanted', all hailing from Azamgarh, four of whom carry a reward of Rs 10 lakh.
Azamgarh, once controversially dubbed as a 'factory of terrorists', is on the radar of the Central intelligence agencies once again. The trigger is the news of Mohammad Sajid alias 'Bada Sajid', who was on the 'most wanted' list of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), being killed in Syria while fighting for the ISIS there.
Sajid had masterminded the serial blasts in Delhi, Jaipur and Ahmedabad in 2008. NIA had declared a reward of Rs 10 lakh for information on Sajid’s whereabouts. His younger brother Chhota Sajid had been killed along with another youth in a police encounter in the well-known Batla House encounter in Delhi on September 19, 2008.
Two suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives — Mohammad Saif and Zeeshan — were arrested while a fourth accused Ariz Khan had escaped. All these youngsters, suspected to be IM operatives, were from Azamgarh. For a long time after the Batla encounter, Azamgarh had virtually become a political battlefield.
After the latest development, the intelligence agencies are learnt to have quickened their search for seven other suspected hardcore terrorists on NIA’s 'most wanted', all hailing from Azamgarh, four of whom carry a reward of Rs 10 lakh.
“We are definitely in touch with Central agencies to find out more about Sajid’s death in Syria,” says Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) IG Ram Kumar. Efforts are on to find who all he was in touch with, he adds. However, he says the ATS is looking at the entire state to ascertain these contacts and not only Azamgarh.
The question before intelligence agencies is whether these IM operatives are working as recruiters for ISIS fighters and sending them to Iraq and Syria to participate in the civil war going on there. The focus is on Azamgarh considering the past track record.
Sources say surveillance on a large number of telephones and mobiles of Azamgarh has already been started and efforts are on to find out who all have been in contact with people in Syria and Iraq since the ISIS started its bloody campaign to usurp power.
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