M A I N   N E W S

Qaida’s Net magazine brain-washed suspects
 Another youth nabbed in B’lore y Pistol, papers seized
Tribune News Service

Bangalore, September 2
The interrogation of 11 suspects arrested by the police after busting a terror ring in Karnataka has revealed that they were inspired by the contents of an online magazine which glorifies activities of the Al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

The Bangalore police has arrested one more youth with alleged links to the Lashkar-e-Toiba. Police Commissioner BG Jyothiprakash Mirji today said the Central Crime Branch arrested Mohammed Akram (22) last night near the Majestic area.

“One foreign-made 7.65 mm pistol, 16 bullets and other incriminating things have been recovered from him,” Mirji told reporters.

Akram hails from Nanded district in Maharashtra. He had been to Saudi Arabia for a year, Mirji said. Akram was staying in Bangalore and, along with other arrested accused, was planning to carry out attacks in the city, Mirji said. Following the arrest of the other accused, he had gone into hiding and was trying to escape when he was nabbed.

Sources in a joint team of investigators conducting the probe claimed that the questioning of the 11 suspects has revealed that they had been apparently indoctrinated to join the terror module by various inflammatory speeches uploaded on the Internet.

The module members spent considerable time surfing the web for jihadi material. Examination of their laptops by the investigators has also revealed that they frequented an online magazine put out by the Al-Qaida.

The 11 arrested on August 29 include a journalist, a doctor and a Junior Research Fellow with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The doctor, Zafar Iqbal, is married to a woman doctor. Arrested DRDO junior research fellow Aizaz Ahmed Mirza’s younger brother, Shoaib, who too has been arrested by police, apparently went to Pakistan to receive arm training. He is otherwise an MCA student.

The laptop and pen drives seized from the accused also showed their extensive visit to websites that spoke about joining of terror modules and 
how to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance of individuals and important targets.

The magazine has been touted by many US think-tanks, as an effective tool of Qaida to recruit youths without getting in physical contact with them.

The think-tanks say the magazine has provided instructions on topics such as "how to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom" and how to clean AK-47 besides other traditional propaganda pieces.

With Akram’s arrest, the total number of those held in connection with the Karnataka terror module has reached 17. The Maharashtra ATS arrested four suspects from Nanded yesterday. Another youth was picked up from Hyderabad by the Bangalore police.