Bengaluru, July 31 (IANS) A day after the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested a female Al-Qaeda operative here, the BJP said the Congress-led Karnataka government has “turned the Garden City of Bengaluru into a Jihadi City”.

The arrested individual has been identified as 33-year-old Shama Parveen Ansari, a native of Jharkhand.

Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly R. Ashoka said, “Due to the appeasement politics of the Congress government, the law and order situation in the state has completely collapsed.”

Ashoka asked Home Minister G. Parameshwara whether the latter would take any action on the development or not.

Responding to Ashoka, Home Minister G. Parameshwara said, “There have been previous reports suggesting that Bengaluru has turned into a sleeper cell hub. Now, they have identified one such module in the city. The arrested woman does not belong to our state, and no information has been shared with us. Central agencies are handling the matter.”

Parameshwara further stated, “This is happening across all states, not just ours. These individuals often come from different states and are not easily tracked. In the MDMA case that came to light in Mysuru (the Chief Minister’s native place), the accused had arrived just 20 days earlier. Before we could apprehend them, the central agencies had already made the arrests and uncovered the racket.”

“We also arrest people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar when our investigations reveal their involvement. In a federal structure, information is shared when such developments take place,” he added.

According to police, the ATS investigation revealed Ansari’s alleged role in strengthening the Al-Qaeda network in Bengaluru. She had been residing in the Manorayanapalya locality of the city.

The sleuths also seized digital equipment, a laptop, and mobile phones from the accused.

Police sources said Shama Parveen is a graduate who came to Bengaluru three years ago and was living with her brother, a software engineer.

She is alleged to have worked for Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and openly supported the group’s ideology on social media platforms, including Instagram. The police stated that she had shared videos of a key Al-Qaeda operative and encouraged youth to take up terrorism.

The Gujarat ATS had earlier arrested four Al Qaeda operatives, and during the investigation, they found links between these individuals and Shama Parveen.

Based on the evidence, the ATS team travelled to Karnataka and arrested her. She was produced before a court and taken to Gujarat after obtaining a transit warrant, the police sources confirmed.

–IANS

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