NIA arrests two Hyderabadi youths for ISIS links

Hyderabad, Aug 12 (IANS) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday arrested two youths here for alleged links with the international terror outfit ISIS.

Mohammed Abdullah Basith, 24, and Mohammed Abdul Qhadeer, 19, were arrested after searches by NIA at seven places in the city on August 6.

According to NIA, the initial questioning brought out the involvement of Basith, Qhadeer and others pledging their allegiance to the proscribed terrorist organization ISIS to carry out terror activities in India.

The agency arrested the two to ascertain the details of the ongoing conspiracy and also their role played in furthering the ISIS ideology to carry out terrorist acts in India. The accused are residents of Hafiz Baba Nagar and Chandrayangutta areas of the old city.

The arrests were made as part of the investigation into an earlier case registered in New Delhi in 2016 against Sheikh Azhar ul Islam, Mohammed Farhan Shaikh and Adnan Hassan for the allegations that they and their other unknown associates were members of ISIS. 

They were allegedly involved in a conspiracy to identify, motivate, radicalize, recruit and train Indian Muslim youths on behalf of ISIS to carry out terror activities, NIA said in a press release.

All the three accused were subsequently arrested by NIA. A special court later sentenced Azhar ul Islam and Farhan Shaikh to seven years of imprisonment, while trial against accused Adnan Hassan was still going on. Further investigation continued against other accused.

"During further investigation, a fresh input was received from reliable sources that one Abdullah Basith resident of Hyderabad, who was connected with accused Adnan Hassan and some of his associates, are in regular touch with each other and conspiring to further the activities of ISIS," NIA said

During the searches in Hyderabad, a lot of incriminating material was recovered and seized. The same has been sent to CFSL Hyderabad for analysis and data extraction, the agency added.