Jaipur: Rajasthan’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has recovered over 300,000 hidden photos and large volumes of suspicious digital material from the mobile phone of cleric Osama Umar, arrested in Barmer district for alleged links with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and foreign funding.
IG Vikas Kumar said multiple ATS teams are analysing deleted files, recovered images and suspicious content from Umar’s phone and social media accounts. Umar was detained in Sanchore on November 4, formally arrested on November 6 after interrogation, and later remanded to jail.
Investigators revealed that Umar had been in contact with radical organisations via social media and had consumed TTP propaganda for nearly four years. He was allegedly planning to fly to Afghanistan via Dubai on November 8 to undergo terror training, before returning to India to activate a sleeper cell. The ATS detained him before he could leave the country.
Several chats and messages in Urdu and Persian have been retrieved and are under scrutiny. The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report confirmed that four years’ worth of extremist content was stored on his device, much of it in Urdu, Arabic and Persian, which will be examined by language experts.
Officials said efforts are underway to de-radicalise four other individuals detained alongside Umar. The arrests, including that of a doctor from Malpura in Tonk, have prompted heightened surveillance by national intelligence agencies, ATS and state units, particularly on social media platforms.
Authorities noted that since the 2008 Jaipur serial blasts, several attempts by terror outfits to expand their network in Rajasthan have been foiled, with the latest case underscoring continued vigilance.
(Inputs from IANS)