'Another accomplice tasked to assassinate Gordhan Zadafia apart from Irfan': Gujarat ATS

The Gujarat Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) had arrested a sharpshooter allegedly from the D-Gang and a close aide of Chhota Shakeel named Irfan Mosim Shaikh aged 23-year-old from the Relief Road area of Ahmedabad on Tuesday night. Upon interrogation of the shooter, there were further details that were established and made clear about the shooter and the trail of the shooter from where he was being given instructions from - whether it was in Karachi where Chhota Shakeel is believed to be residing in. During the course of the interrogation, the Gujarat ATS also found out that the shooter was getting messages and sending back videos to a phone number in the Netherlands.

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Assassination plot

There were several messages that the shooter had been sending to a number, which was later found out to be of the Netherlands. The ATS team has also found out that there was another accomplice that was supposedly working with Irfan who had been given the task of allegedly assassinating the political leader Gordhan Zadafia. The name of the accomplice was Salman and he was supposed to help Irfan in the assassination. The shooter had two pistols in his ownership and one was of the Salman who was supposed to come to Ahmedabad.

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Shooter's ties with D-Gang

As of now, the ATS has not been able to deduce the reason as to why both the shooters had been planning on assassinating Gordhan Zadafia. The reason being stated as of now for the shooters to make such a plan is to create political unrest in the country. "They usually get instructions from Karachi to carry out such plans in the state which is also the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Mostly, their targets are Hindu leaders," a senior ATS official shared.

The officials also believe that the shooter has deep ties with the D- Gang and that he is an important person in the team of Chhota Shakeel who is a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim. Several officials also shared that there was another case of Bharuch double assassination of VHP leaders and that there are several instances that Hindu community leaders are targeted for creating communal tensions.

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[Image credits: @gpzadafia(Twitter)]