Four people suspected to have links with Islamic State have been arrested in Hyderabad as part of the nation-wide crackdown, police sources said.
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The NIA officially arrested Mohammed Nafees Khan alias Fatima Khan alias Abu Zarrar alias Akram, 24 and Mohammed Shareef Moinuddin Khan, 54, an electricity worker. Four of them were nabbed from Bengaluru, one from Tumkur and one from Hubli.
“We have recovered material used to make IEDs (improvised explosive devices) from two locations but no explosives have been seized”, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters. Five of them had been arrestedon Fridayas part of NIAs nationwide anti-terror drive ahead of Republic Day celebrations onJanuary 26.
Six suspected ISIS agents were detained in Bengaluru on Friday. Mumbra, in Thane district, is around 30 km from Mumbai.
With help from intelligence inputs, NIA and the police conducted the joint operation in Karnataka. The NIA registered a case at Delhi and conducted raids at different places including Bengaluru on Thursday night.
Mohammad Sirazudin, an executive of the Indian Oil Corporation, who was arrested in Jaipur in December 2015 for allegedly spreading ISIS activities online and trying to recruit Indian youths in the Middle-East terrorist group, was allegedly on the verge of turning into a “lone wolf”.
On Friday, NIA arrested five suspected IS members and nine others were detained.
Hyderabad witnessed arrests of a few IS sympathisers and an alleged recruiting agent, a woman, last year.
Delhi police has also issued an alert after the driver of a taxi, hijacked by three unidentified men from Pathankot, was found dead. A CI cell official said, “They are looking for more suspects in Hyderabad”. Kumar was a resident of Gaggal in Kangra.
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Security agencies relate the incident to happenings prior to the attack on Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Pathankot in Punjab on January 2, in which taxi driver Ikagar Singh was killed by terrorists.
