Hyderabad’s ISIS Operatives Were Planning A Caliphate in India
Hyderabad: The NIA investigating the Islami State operations in Hyderabad after arresting a team of IS operatives recently found that the accused persons formed an organisation by name of Junood-ul-Khilafa-Fil-Hind to recruit Muslim youths to work for ISIS to establish a Caliphate in India.
“The group was acting at the behest of ISIS India chief Yousuf-al-Hindi alias Shafi Armar alias Anjan Bhai, who is based in Syria and is its media chief. It has been confirmed in the investigation that Shafi Armar had contacted and interacted on web-based social media networks like Facebook, WhatsApp, Trillians, Skype, Surespot, Twitter, Chat Security, Nimbus and Telegram with the accused,” a chargesheet filed by the NIA said.
Shafi Armar was guiding the accused on recruitment, preparation of IEDs, identifying places for training and hideouts and finally to execute terror strikes. The group had met at the house of Mohammed Shareef, one of the accused, in Hyderabad on December 15 in 2015 and January 15, 2016. They had also conducted meetings at Devaranya Dargah state forest in Tumkuru, Deoband and Bengaluru.
The chargesheet has been filed against the terror suspects under criminal conspiracy, sections of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Explosive Substances Act.
The chargesheet has been filed against 16 persons — Mohammed Nafees Khan, Mudabbir Musthaq Shaik of Mumbai, Abu Anas, Janmal Huda, Mohammed Afzal, Mohammed Shareef Moinuddin Khan, Suhail Ahmed, Asif Ali, Mohammed Obedulla Khan, Mohammed Aleem, Mohammed Hussain Khan, Mufti Abdus Sami Qasmi and against absconding Shafi Armar, a native of Bhatkal in Karnataka. Two of the accused have turned approvers and have been granted conditional pardon by the trial court.
Quizzing of Yazdani Brothers Ends
NIA officials took one of the arrested ISIS men into custody on Tuesday for grilling in connection with the terror conspiracy case. NIA sleuths took Ataullah Rahman, 30, from Bandlaguda, into custody for five days to quiz him in detail.
Meanwhile, NIA sent back the Yazdani brothers to judicial custody after finishing interrogation on Tuesday. Mohammed Ilyas Yazdani and Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani were produced in court before sending them back to prison. On July 12, the court had extended police custody for eight days.
Ataullah Rehman, who is now being grilled by NIA officials, had radicalised other ISIS men by preaching the IS ideology to them. After motivating the group with propaganda, he made the group do Bayah, the oath of allegiance, to IS chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, officials said.
NIA had formally arrested Rehman on July 12 after collecting evidence against him and he was lodged in judicial custody. NIA officials need to extract more information on his connections with ISIS handlers in Syria, who had reportedly provided him propaganda material.
Yasir Niamatullah, chief of Hyderabad module, and Athaullah Rehman, a motivator who raised funds, have been arrested by NIA after the first batch of five accused were arrested.
