Murtaza, who attacked the Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur, UP, has been sentenced to death by the NIA court. The case was going on against the accused Murtaza under UAPA. Considering him a terrorist, the NIA court gave its verdict on Monday. However, the family is still calling him a mental patient. Let us know what happened outside the Gorakhnath temple that day?
3 April 2022, Gorakhnath Temple, Gorakhpur
It was late evening that day. Outside the Gorakhnath temple, there was activity like everyday. Police and PAC jawans were doing routine checking outside the temple. Only then a person reached there and forcibly tried to enter the Gorakhnath temple. When the PAC jawans tried to stop him, he took out a sharp weapon and attacked. In this, one PAC jawan got injured in his leg and another in his back. The people present on the spot caught hold of the attacker and thrashed him, due to which the attacker was also injured. The attacker along with both the soldiers were rushed to the hospital.
The accused is a resident of Gorakhpur.
The person taken into custody was told that he had come from Mumbai. A laptop was also recovered from him. He was identified as Ahmed Murtaza Abbasi. He is basically a resident of Gorakhpur and had returned from Mumbai at that time. His family lives in Gorakhpur. In the initial interrogation, the family told the top police officers that the accused Murtaza Abbasi is not mentally well.
Why did you attack?
But the laptop recovered from his bag was raising doubts. The biggest question before the police was why the accused attacked the policemen? Why had he reached near the temple? What was his connection with Mumbai? The police was looking for answers to all these questions. The attacker was hospitalized. So the police was waiting for him to come in a condition to take his statement.
Who is accused Murtaza?
Accused Ahmed Murtaza Abbasi obtained a chemical engineering degree from IIT Mumbai in the year 2015. After that he had worked in two big companies (Reliance Industries, Essar Petrochemicals). He was also an app developer. Information was collected on which apps he worked on. Because he used to talk to people through the app as well.
Terrorist Connection!
The matter was of attack on the police. Therefore, the police was rapidly investigating the matter. She was investigating the criminal history of Murtaza. During the investigation, the police came to know that the attacker had also gone to Nepal recently. Accused Ahmed Murtaza Abbasi was taking online training to become a radical. He had started thinking of himself as a sacrificer in the name of religion. He also went to Coimbatore and Lumbini from Nepal. ATM cards of several banks and literature written in Urdu were also recovered from him.
Family rejected terrorist theory
On the allegations of terrorist connection, the family of Ahmed Murtaza said that he is a mental patient since childhood. His family rejected the terror theory of the police.
ATS and IB team had interrogated
During this, the team of ATS and IB also interrogated the accused. Because the police had recovered many suspicious documents from him. In such a situation, the investigating agencies claimed that Murtaza could have a terrorist connection.
Data analysis of recovered gadgets
After investigation, the police made a sensational disclosure that accused Murtaza was in contact with ISIS terrorist and propaganda activist Mehdi Masood. According to the UP police, Murtaza himself made this disclosure during interrogation. At that time, the data of different electronic devices recovered at the instance of Murtaza were analysed, including various social media accounts like Gmail, Twitter, Facebook etc.
Bank Account and Transaction Check
Apart from this, the financial transactions of his various bank accounts, e-wallets were also scrutinised. It has come to know that Murtaza was in contact with ISIS fighters and ISIS supporters through social media. Murtaza was also in touch with ISIS propaganda activist Mehdi Masroor, who was arrested by the Bengaluru police in 2014. Apart from this, Murtaza had sent about eight and a half lakh rupees from his different bank accounts to the countries of Europe and America for the support of terrorist activities through the supporters of ISIS organization.
Influence of ISIS ideology
During interrogation, it was revealed that the accused Murtaza was completely influenced by radical propagandists of terrorist organizations and jihadi literature and videos promoting terrorist ideology related to ISIS. In 2013, Abbasi had taken the Bayat (oath) of Ansar ul Tauhid (terrorist organisation), which merged with ISIS in 2014, in front of terrorist propaganda activists on social media platforms. In the year 2020, Murtuza took the Bayat (oath) of the ISIS organization again.
one reveal after another
After the police, the investigation of this case was handed over to the NIA. After this, there were many revelations one after the other about the accused. As the scope of investigation increased, Murtaza’s terrorist link started getting exposed and his wires were being connected from Gujarat to Nepal across the border.
There was a conspiracy to attack many people
Accused Murtaza used to read articles on modern weapons like AK-47 rifle, M4 carbine, missile technology etc. through internet and also used to watch videos. In this sequence, he also practiced with air rifle. The accused attacked the policemen guarding the southern gate of the Gorakshnath temple in a lone wolf attack style of ISIS terror and tried to snatch the security personnel’s rifle. His plan was to carry out a major incident by snatching their weapons and attacking the security personnel.
