AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has arrested a man allegedly involved in a terror conspiracy after he was found to be radicalised by the ideologies of terror outfits such as Al Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed, officials said on Tuesday. The accused, identified as Faizan Shaikh, a native of Dundawala in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur district and currently residing in Charpul in Gujarat’s Navsari district, was apprehended on Sunday. Officials said he had illegally procured weapons and ammunition and was planning targeted killings to spread fear. “After being radicalised by the ideologies of Jaish-e-Mohammed and Al Qaeda, Shaikh procured weapons and ammunition with the intent to execute killings of a selected group of individuals,” an ATS official said, without divulging further operational details. The arrest comes amid heightened vigilance following the November arrest of three persons by the Gujarat ATS in a separate terror plot. That case involved an alleged plan to carry out a major terrorist attack using weapons and chemicals. Among those arrested earlier was Dr Ahmed Mohiyuddin Saiyed from Telangana, who was allegedly preparing ricin — a highly toxic substance derived from castor beans — to execute a large-scale attack. Two other accused from Uttar Pradesh were arrested for allegedly supplying weapons to him, officials had said.
