Espionage case: 800 members of Varanasi man's WhatsApp groups on ATS radar
LUCKNOW The UP Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) is scanning credentials of around 800 people added to 19 'anti-national' WhatsApp groups operated by Tufail Maqsood, 34, who was arrested by the agency from Varanasi on May 21 on charges of spying for Pakistan, said officials on Friday.
The details have been retrieved from Tufail's phone and credentials of people linked to his social media network are being cross-checked, said officials interrogating the accused.
Tufail Maqsood, Delhi resident Mohd Harun, 45, who was arrested from Noida by UP ATS on May 21 and Rampur resident Shahzad Wahab, 35, who was nabbed in the same connection from Moradabad on May 18, are in ATS custody for interrogation.
An ATS official said Tufail created around 19 WhatsApp groups to connect with different people of seven east UP districts including Varanasi, Jaunpur, Mau, Bhadohi, Mirzapur, Chandauli and Ghazipur. He allegedly radicalised them in the name of religion by posting inflammatory speeches of clerics and terror group 'leaders'.
'He posted content related to 'establishing Muslim rule in India before 2047 and enforcing Shariat law in the country'. And these contents were shared to him by a Pakistani woman Nafisa, whom he was in touch with for the past four months after coming in contact through social media platforms,' the official said.
He said Nafisa's social media profile revealed that she was in touch with 240 youths in India, including six from UP districts including Varanasi, Lucknow, Bareilly, Kannauj, Moradabad and Rampur. 'It is suspected that Pakistan's secret agency ISI has been using Nafisa to connect with Indian youths and radicalise them to rope them in for spying and other nefarious activities,' added the official.
Nafisa is suspected to have built a strong network of Indian youths and spreading hatred by inciting Muslim youths in the name of religion and atrocities on minorities in the country. She had roped in Tufail to make strengthen her network among youths, the official said.
Earlier, the ATS had claimed that Tufail Maqsood, a resident of Jaitpura, Varanasi, was in touch with at least 600 Pakistani mobile numbers and shared sensitive information related to India's security. The agency stated that Tufail is highly radicalised as he used to share videos of banned Pak-based terror outfit Tehreek-e-Labbek's leader Maulana Shaad Rizvi and content related to 'revenge for Babri mosque demolition'.
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