LUCKNOW: A special court of the National Investigation Agency in Lucknow has sentenced three terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda to life imprisonment for conspiring to wage war against the country and planning bomb blasts in Uttar Pradesh.
The convicted individuals—Mushiruddin, Minhaj Ahmad, and Tauheed Ahmad—were associated with the Al-Qaeda-linked outfit Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind. They were found guilty of plotting coordinated terror attacks in Lucknow, Kanpur, and Ayodhya.
The verdict was delivered by Special Judge Jainendra Pandey, who also imposed fines—Rs 1.42 lakh each on Minhaj and Mushiruddin, and Rs 85,000 on Tauheed. The sentences will run concurrently.
The court noted that the time already spent in custody would be adjusted. During the trial, the NIA presented 42 witnesses, 149 documents, and 109 material exhibits.
The conspiracy dates back to July 2021, when the accused allegedly planned serial blasts using improvised explosive devices, including “pressure cooker bombs” and “fruit bombs.” Acting on intelligence inputs, the Uttar Pradesh ATS arrested the accused before the plot could be executed.
Explosives, bomb-making materials, mobile phones, and maps of key locations in the targeted cities were recovered during the arrests. Investigations revealed that the accused were acting on instructions from handlers based in Pakistan and were planning to conceal explosives inside fruit-like objects to carry out attacks.
