Following the discovery of a video featuring terrorist Farhatullah Ghori urging India’s sleeper cells to launch attacks on trains throughout the nation, intelligence services in the country are on high alert. India Today has learnt from sources that Ghori, a wanted terrorist now living in Pakistan, used a sleeper cell and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to plan the explosion at Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram Cafe.
In the three-minute clip, Ghori—who has been under surveillance for years by Indian authorities—calls for sleeper cells to bring down India’s train system. He describes the many pressure cooker bomb blasting techniques.
Ghori also discusses intentions to attack Hindu leaders and India’s petroleum pipelines. He claims that by using the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) to target the properties of sleeper groups, the Indian government is weakening them.
“But we will return and shake the government,” Ghori says in the video.
Sources from intelligence services claim that the video was posted on Telegram approximately three weeks ago.
The March 1 explosion in Rameshwaram injured at least ten persons. Two major suspects, Adbul Matheen Ahmed Taahaa and Mussavir Hussain Shazib, were taken into custody by the NIA on April 12 after the agency assumed control of the case on March 3. Shazib was said to have planted the IED at the well-known cafe, but Taahaa was the mastermind. They were apprehended while assuming false identities at a lodge outside of Kolkata. The two are purported members of the Shivamogga, Karnataka-based Islamic State (IS) module. Shariq, a member of the same module, had carried out a blast in Mangaluru in November 2022.
Farhatullah Ghori and his son-in-law Shahid Faisal have a strong network of sleeper cells in south India. Faisal was in touch with both the accused in the Rameshwaram Cafe blast, and was the handler in the case.
Farhatullah Ghori, aliases for Abu Sufiyan, Sardar Sahab, and Faru, has been connected to a number of high-profile incidents, such as the 2002 attack on Gujarat’s Akshardham Temple, which left over 30 people dead and 80 injured. He was also responsible for the 2005 suicide assault on the Hyderabad Task Force office.
Delhi Police claimed last year that Ghori is running an internet jihadist recruitment operation after apprehending three of the most wanted terrorists from Uttar Pradesh and the nation’s capital, respectively. They disclosed that Ghori was the terrorists’ handler.
A few months ago, following the nationwide arrest of multiple terrorists affiliated with the Pune-ISIS module, DelhiPolice recorded the name of Ghori. At the time, officials had stated that the ISI was recruiting young people to carry out attacks and operating sleeper cells in India.
