Rajkot bar refuses to help duo linked to IS

As the Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) sought the custody of Ramadiya brothers arrested for their alleged links with ISIS, the duo was left to argue the case in a Rajkot court on their own after lawyers in the city refused to defend them.

The situation arose after the Rajkot Bar Association refused to take up the case as it passed a resolution hailing the work of security agencies in foiling their terror plan. By the time their father Aarif Ramadiya could manage to bring a lawyer from Jamnagar, located 100 km from Rajkot, the court remanded them in 12-day police custody on Monday.

“The Rajkot Bar Association unanimously passed a resolution that no lawyer will represent the brothers,” said association president Sanjay Vyas.

An NIA team is expected to come to interrogate Wasim and Naem Ramadiya in this first ISIS related case from Gujarat.

The Ramadiyas were arrested in the wee hours of Sunday by the ATS, which claimed to have followed the brothers for two years on social media. They were allegedly in contact with a handler from ISIS, who was preparing them for a terror attack on a local religious place. The two, from whom the police recovered gun powder, jehadi literature and masks, had zeroed in on famous Chotila temple in Surendranagar district.

They had planned to flee to Syria to join ISIS after executing the temple attack, police said. The ATS also has a recorded conversation wherein a handler is heard instructing Wasim to “kill a kafir” in a lone wolf attack to spread terror, they added.

While the ATS is trying to investigate a possible funding angle from the terror group, so far it has been revealed that the brothers thrice failed to execute their terror plan.

“Wasim had once reached Chotila for a knife attack, but he failed. His wife had allegedly called him impotent for the same,” said an officer.