YouTube to Grenades: How Abdul Zahed recruited people to carry out terror attack in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Hyderabad Police in its remand report revealed that Mohammed Abdul Zahed- a resident of Malakpet, the main accused in the recently foiled terror plot city is the brother of 'Shahed Bilal and Abdul Samad' who executed the suicide attack on the Commissioner's Task Force office in Begumpet on October 12, 2005.

It is to note, Bilal and Samad were killed in a shootout in Karachi in 2007.

Zahed alias Abdul Wajid was also an accused in the 2005 Task Force office attack, police said. He was in jail for 12 years and was released in 2017. After being released from jail, he revived his contacts with Pakistani handlers Farhatullah Ghor alias FG, Siddique Bin Osman, and Abu Hamza, said the remand report. Documents in possession with NewsMeter.

FG has been declared an 'individual terrorist' under UAPA by the Ministry of Human Affairs (MHA). Investigation found that he was spending hawala money and recruiting youth for terror activities. Zahed recruited Samiuddin alias Sami and Maaz by procuring hawala money for the utilization of terror activities.

Hyderabad police, on October 2nd, arrested three persons in Hyderabad for conspiring to hurl grenades on public gatherings. They include Abdul Zahed, Samiuddin alias Sami, and Maaz Hasan.

Abdul Zahed alias Motu aged 39 years is a resident of Moosarambagh in Malakpet, Mohd. Sameeuddin alias Abdul Sami aged 39 years is a businessman living in Akber Bagh, Saidabad, and Maaz Hasan aged 29 years is a resident of Humayun nagar, Mehdipatnam.

On 2 October, Abdul Zahed along with his associates received a consignment of four hand grenades and were going to carry out sensational terror attacks in Hyderabad, Telangana, cops said.

How did Zahed collect weapons?

On September 28, Sami collected the four grenades from Manoharabad and handed them to Zahed. Zahed gave one each to Sami and Maaz and directed them to carry out the attack. He instructed them to hurl it on processions or any huge gatherings during festive seasons to create communal tension in the city. While they were planning to attack, the police got the tip off and took them into custody, and seized the grenades.

According to the remand diary, Sami confessed that he knows Zahed and that he used to regularly visit his shop and use his mobile phone to talk for 20-30 minutes. Further Sami said that Zahed was in constant touch with FG, Majeed, and Siddique bin Osman Abu Hamzala, all based in Pakistan and working for LeT-IST.

On 27 September, Sami went to meet Zahed. He took Sami's phone and talked to the Pakistani handlers through encrypted communications. He later showed Sami the photographs of the hand grenade consignment and instructed him to collect it from Manoharabad.

On 28 September, Sami went to Manoharabad, brought the consignment, and handed it over to Zahed at his residence. On 29 September, all three of them --Zahed, Sami, and Maaz --went to the hotel Al Marjaan. Zahed gave one grenade to Sami and one to Maaz to complete their task of attack on the public.

Police said from schooldays, Maaz was motivated for jihad after watching youtube videos on atrocities against Muslims across the world. He used to watch speeches of radical speaker Anwar al-Awlaki. He along with his friend Abdulla Basith tried to go to Syria to join ISIS twice but did not succeed.

In one of his attempts, he was arrested. In 2016, he met Zahed in Chanchalguda jail. After being released from jail, he used to meet Zahed regularly and did cattle business for some time. Later, Zahed introduced his friend Sami to Maaz.

"Adul Zahed in his confession has revealed that Farhatulla Ghori, Abu Hamzala and Majeed revived their contacts with him and they motivated and financed Zahed to recruit and carryout out terror attacks in Hyderabad again. At the behest of Pakistan based handlers Zahed recruited Samiuddin and Maaz Hasan" cops said.

On 2 October, Hyderabad police arrested Zahed, Sami, and Maaz for plotting a terror attack in the city. A case was registered against them under Sections 18, 18(b), 20 of Unlawful Activities Act-1967 and Sections 4,5,6 of Explosive Substance Act.

Two hand grenades, net cash worth Rs. 3,91,800 and 2 mobile phones were seized from Zahed. One hand grenade, net cash worth Rs: 1,50,000 , one mobile phone and one bullet motor cycle were seized from Sami, and one hand grenade and two mobile phones were seized from Maaz Hasan.

Hyderabad police seek 14 days judicial custody of terror attack accused

In the remandreport to the Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Nampally, Hyderabad police sought 14 days judicial custody of the three arrested persons. "Investigation is pending for the source of explosives (hand grenades), examination of the received hawala money, to establish the accused persons' connection with LeT-ISI, to receive the data from email, cell phones of the accused persons, to establish the identity of the youth who were recruited by the accused persons" police said.