gabar group

Shoheb Akhtar

Shoheb Akhtar is a Pakistani citizen born on January 1, 1995, he lives in the province of Brindisi and has a permanent residence permit. He was arrested in Bari because of his links to Gabar Group and was thus accused of international terrorist association according to art. 270 bis comma 2 c.p. of the Italian Criminal Code. In 2015, Akhtar had already been arrested in Fasano (South of Italy) on the charge of attempted extortion but was later set free by the Tribunal of Brindisi dropping their case against him.
According to the documents released by the Italian authorities, there are no doubts about Akhtar’s role within Gabar. He has in fact been identified as Zaheer Hassan Mahmood’s orderly as well as Gabar’s vice president. Akhtar himself published on May 1, 2020, through his TikTok profile the network’s manifesto and the organisational chart – he appears in the second row in the chain of command- and on September 27, 2020, he released a video with Umer Noman under the Eiffel Tower with the caption “property of Gabbar”, a clear reference to the Paris attack which happened two days earlier. Moreover, numerous social media posts document and confirm Akhtar’s friendship with other Gabar members, always correlated by explicit references to Gabar and the display of various weapons. In particular, Akhtar’s camaraderie with Ahmad Waqas dates back to January 2020 as testified by a video, as well as other TikTok posts with Irslan Raza, Nadeem Raan whom he calls “brother”, Ali Ashan, Umer Noman, and Ali Mohsin. According to the Italian authorities, this evidence proves Akhtar’s bond with the terrorist network as well as his central role as vice president.
Once arrested, the Tribunal of Genova imposed on Shoheb Akhtar the precautionary measure consisting of a pre-trial detention, he asked for a shortened proceeding and was put on trial on July 12 and 13, 2023 while the judge’s ruling was scheduled for September 18, 2023. In October 2023, he was sentenced for conspiracy to commit terrorism to four years and six months.