LUCKNOW/GORAKHPUR: Investigators have claimed to have dug out ISIS links of an IIT-Bombay graduate accused of a murderous attack on April 3 on two police guards at the Gorakhnath temple, whose chief priest is UP CM Yogi Adityanath.
Stringent provisions of the UAPA anti-terrorism law have been slapped on Gorakhpur resident Murtaza Abbasi. He was sent to judicial custody for 14 days on Saturday. He was seen in videos chasing policemen with a sickle, but was overpowered.
A Gorakhpur district court approved prosecution of Abbasi under UAPA on a plea by the UP anti-terrorism squad, which produced evidence of his links with jihadist groups in West Asia, particularly ISIS, and a money trail from Nepal to global terrorism networks. He will be moved to Lucknow prison and tried at the NIA court.
ATS sources said the Gorakhnath temple attack was part of a bigger conspiracy and evidence collated during Abbasi’s 12-day police custody proves he was a member of an international terrorist organisation and was raising funds and radicalising youth for terror acts in India.