Mississauga restaurant shooting: Witness describes hearing alleged terrorist plot

Court heard from the Crown's star witness Tuesday in the case of an alleged terrorist plot to shoot an entire family at their Mississauga restaurant.

Mikhail Aras said he was at the group's warehouse to see the suspected shooter, Anand Nath, get out of the trunk of the car he was hiding in as the getaway car returned from its mission in May 2021, and was eventually invited into their trust – but he went to the police instead.

“The trunk opens, Anand comes out with his hoodie strings tied. His eyes were – I don’t know how to describe it. Inhuman. In a state of shock. Wide open,” Aras testified.

“I asked him what happened. He does not say anything. We must pray,” Aras said.

This was among the extraordinary moments of Aras' testimony during the first-degree murder trial of Anand Nath, Suliman Raza and Naqash Abbasi.

The trio is accused of the May 29, 2021 attack at the Chicken Land restaurant. Nath is accused of shooting and killing 25-year-old Naim Akl. Members of his family and an employee were also injured in the shooting. Raza is accused of being the getaway driver and Abbasi is accused of masterminding the plot. They all pleaded not guilty.

Aras said he had met Abbasi at a mosque in the area years before and in 2021 Abbasi called him to see if he could let Nath stay with him for a few days. Aras agreed and Nath moved in with him at the end of May.

On May 29, Aras joined Nath and Raza for a shopping spree that ended at the Kimbel Street warehouse of TriALinc, a company that ordered cheap products from overseas and then sold them locally on Amazon. Online videos show the trio marketing their products, which were largely kitchen utensils and toys.

An argument over a bad investment preceded an angry phone call between Abbasi and Akl, who worked at the warehouse and then quit, the court heard.

Surveillance videos show Raza's car entering and exiting the building's parking lot. Aras testified that he overheard a phone call between Abbasi and Nath, during which Abbasi asked him if he was “ready,” and Nath replied, “Yes, I am ready to do this for the sake of Allah.” »

The couple left and returned shortly after. Nath jumped out of the trunk and neither explained where they were, Aras said. Nath, whose hair was long before the shooting, suddenly shaved his head, he said.

The following Monday, Aras said he was invited to their warehouse, and Abassi reached out to him and asked him to pledge allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, or ISIS, group at the time: Abu Ibrahim al- Hashimi al-Qurashi. .

“They said if I did this it was a form of secrecy and they could trust me,” he said.

That's when Aras said Abbasi explained the plot, he said.

“Anand was sent on a mission to massacre a Naim guy. Naqash ordered his entire family to be massacred,” Aras recalls. “It was a liability because he knew too much information about allegiance to the al-Hashimi guy.”

He said they described the killing: that Suliman dropped Nath off outside Chicken Land and that Anand shot several family members and a driver. As he ran toward the car, Nath held up a “6” sign as a reference, saying he had shot six people.

“There was a guy with a dog outside. He was walking the dog. He was going to kill him but decided against it. He got into the trunk and fled,” he said.

Aras said Raza's response at that point was “to laugh, just like he is doing now,” he said, while the three defendants nodded and appeared to respond nonverbally to Macaws.

“Nath told me that Naqash had ordered him to go and do that. It was the right thing to do for Islam. You have to do these things to go to heaven,” Aras said.

The group pulled out a silver handgun and showed Aras the missing bullets in the magazine, he said. Raza – who the court heard had IS propaganda videos on his phone – was sending money to a brother in Pakistan for “jihad training”, he said.

“Naqash was building this business on Amazon, sending money back to his home country to help with the war between the militants, ISIS, etc. ” said Aras.

Aras also said the group was “trying to establish themselves here in Canada.” They had a list of people.

But at that point he was interrupted by a prosecutor who told him this was beyond the scope of the murder trial. There are other people described by Aras at this meeting, but they are not facing charges and no terrorism charges have been filed in this case.

He said that a few days later, Nath told him he took the gun to a park and buried it before fleeing to Montreal, where he was eventually arrested.

Aras' cross-examination will begin on Wednesday.