Overview
- Uttar Pradesh’s Anti-Terrorist Squad arrested Mohammad Sheikh from Khudadadpur in Azamgarh after an intelligence-led sweep, with officials saying the arrest followed surveillance and digital tracing to foreign handlers.
- Authorities recovered a 9 mm pistol, four live cartridges and a mobile phone and have registered cases under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Arms Act and the UAPA, with Sheikh sent to judicial custody on May 31.
- The ATS alleges Sheikh was assigned a ‘trial mission’ that involved threatening and killing a woman political leader as a test before induction into larger operations.
- Investigators say Sheikh communicated with Pakistan- and Dubai-based numbers on WhatsApp and social platforms and was allegedly handled by gang leader Shahzad Bhatti and operatives named by officials as Ajmal Gurjar and Raza Pakistani.
- The probe is active and will use phone forensics and requested custody remand to map further domestic and cross-border links, a development that could lead to more arrests and closer monitoring of social-media recruitment tactics.