BHOPAL: The three persons arrested by the MP police for being the alleged perpetrators of the train blast were under deep influence of ISIS and its ideology for the past one year. Atish Mohammed, Danish Akhtar and Syed Mir Hussain were regularly visiting websites of radical Islamist organisations and had brainwashed themselves into ardent enemies of the Indian state.
In police interrogation, they accepted that they were reading material related to terror and radical Islam on the Internet for a long time. They were also poring over material related with ISIS. Their cell phones were full of anti-national propaganda. They said they had chosen to tread the path of terrorism, influenced by this propaganda.
One of them had relations with many persons in Bhopal. The police are trying to find out whether their acquaintances knew about their terrorist activities. They were planning to mount another blast soon. Material used for manufacturing bombs has been seized from the house where a person was killed by the Uttar Pradesh police in an encounter.
They are net-savvy, had learnt how to improvise explosives from different websites. As they were not formally trained in bomb-making, they could not put together a powerful explosive device. Had that been so, they could have wrecked havoc.
One reason why they chose Madhya Pradesh to strike may be the killing of SIMI activists in Bhopal in an encounter with the police recently. They were hopeful that after this incident, they would get funding and help from terrorist outfits to launch a major attack.
Were planning to associate others
The accused were planning to persuade others to join their anti-India mission. According to sources, they intended to associate young boys from a particular community. They had also formed a WhatsApp group in which religious material was circulated. They wanted to use the Internet to expand their network.