Himalaya Harbinger, Rudrapur Bureau
Intelligence agencies in India are on high alert after coming across a video that showed terrorist Farhatullah Ghori asking the sleeper cells in India to carry out attacks on trains across the country. Sources have informed India Today that Ghori, a fugitive jihadist who is currently based in Pakistan, orchestrated the blast in Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram Cafe through a sleeper cell with the support of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The video shows Ghori, who has been on the Indian agencies’ radar for years, calling on the sleeper cells to derail the railway network in India. He explains the various methods of bomb blasts using pressure cookers.
Ghori also talks about plans to target the petroleum pipelines in India, and Hindu leaders. He says that the Indian government is weakening the sleeper cells by targeting their properties via the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
But we will return and shake the government,” Ghori is heard saying in the video.
According to sources from intelligence agencies, the video was released on Telegram about three weeks ago.
At least 10 people were injured in the Rameshwaram blast on March 1. The NIA, which took over the case on March 3, had on April 12, arrested two key accused, Adbul Matheen Ahmed Taahaa and Mussavir Hussain Shazib. While Taahaa was the mastermind, Shazib had allegedly placed the IED at the popular cafe. They were arrested from a lodge near Kolkata, where they were staying under assumed identities. The two are allegedly members of the Islamic State (IS) module based in Karnataka’s Shivamogga. Shariq, a member of the same module, had carried out a blast in Mangaluru in November 2022.
Farhatullah Ghori and his son-in-law Shahid Faisal have a strong network of sleeper cells in south India. Faisal was in touch with both the accused in the Rameshwaram Cafe blast, and was the handler in the case.
WHO IS FARHATULLAH GHORI?
Farhatullah Ghori, also known as Abu Sufiyan, Sardar Sahab, and Faru, has been linked to several high-profile attacks, including the 2002 Akshardham Temple attack in Gujarat that killed over 30 people and injured 80 others. He was also behind the 2005 suicide attack on the Task Force office in Hyderabad.
Ghori is allegedly orchestrating online jihadist recruitment, Delhi Police said last year after arresting three most-wanted terrorists from the national capital and Uttar Pradesh, respectively. They revealed that Ghori was the handler of the terrorists.
A few months ago, Delhi Police took the name of Ghori on record after several terrorists of the Pune-ISIS module were arrested from across the country. Officials had claimed at the time that the ISI was running sleeper cells in India and recruiting young people to carry out attacks.
