NIA special court convicts two over conspiracy to unleash terrorist attacks in India

Guwahati: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday secured the conviction and sentencing of two members of the proscribed Bangladeshi terror outfit, Ansal-al-lslam, over a conspiracy to unleash terrorist attacks in India.

They have been identified as Bangladeshi nationals, Mahmud Hassan @ Shariful Hassan and Mohamad Sayad Hussain @ Mohamad Sa'ad Hussain @ Sohan Molla @ Shihab Hossain.

The NIA Special Court, Aizawl, Mizoram, has sentenced both to Imprisonment of five years each, along with fine of Rs 10,000 or one month in default, after finding them quilty under various provisions of IPC, Foreigners Act and UA(P) Act.

The men had illegally entered India and had been staying in various places on fake lndian identity documents, such as Aadhar Card etc. They were chargesheeted on 23rd January 2020, following investigations by NIA, which took over the case in September 2019.

NIA investigations in the case RC-11/2019/NIA-GUW had revealed that they had aided and abetted a conspiracy hatched by Ansar-al-Islam, which claimed to be the Bangladesh wing of Al-Qaeda, for the commission of terrorist acts. The agency unravelled their roles in the conspiracy through analysis of various digital documents, incriminating audios and inspirational speeches to promote Jihad, as well as images of hand written details of bomb making, among other seizures. A total of 11 mobile phones and 16 SIM cards had been seized from the two men.

Mahmud Hassan, roped into the conspiracy by one Abdul Wadud, operated under guidance from his handler Munir. Photographs of important public and religious places in Bengaluru recovered from his mobile phone showed that he had conducted a recce of the same.

Mohamad Sayad Hussain used to shift around frequently on directions from his handler Bashir Ahmed and disguised his profession to conceal his identity and detection by police and security personnel, as per the NIA investigations.