5 IS men arrested, point at Independent Modules

NEW DELHI: Known for ‘lone wolf’ attacks outside Syria and Iraq, Islamic State in India seems to be following the footsteps of homegrown Indian Mujahideen (IM) by setting up independent modules in different cities. On Wednesday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) claimed it has busted a module in Hyderabad that was planning to carry out strikes across the city, religious places, malls and target VVIPs.
Between 2008 & 2013, IM had set up such modules in places such as Darbhanga, Ranchi, Jaipur, Delhi, Mangalore, Bangalore that were busted later with arrest of its cadre.

In the present case, the agency said they have arrested five youths and detained six others for their alleged affiliations to Abu-bakr-al-Baghdadi -led caliphate. Thirty two men are already behind bars for their alleged links with the terrorist outfit. NIA said it had registered an FIR on June 22 naming five suspects — Ibrahim Yazdani (30), Ilyas Yazdani, Habeeb Mohammed (32), Mohd Irfan (27) and Abdulla bin Ahman alias Fahad (31). The leader of the group, Fahad, is a management graduate while Irfan runs a fabrication business with an annual income is Rs 5 lakh.

NIA said Ibrahim is an engineer, Ilyas dropped out in B.Com first year and is presently working at a cyber cafe. Habeeb is pursuing computer sciences from a private university. According to NIA’s FIR, the arrested youths were taking instruction from their handlers in Syria and Iraq using WhatsApp, Trillion and Telegram.



At the time of the arrest, the agency claimed to have seized chemicals used in preparation of IEDs, cash Rs 15 lakh, 23 mobiles, 7 pen-drive, maps of important places in Hyderabad, 2 9MM pistols, electronic gadgets used for making IEDs.

NIA said the identity of Syria based handlers is still being ascertained but they suspect former members of IM who migrated to Syria and Afghanistan to be behind radicalisation and recruitment for this module. NIA IG Sanjeev Kumar Singh told ET: “We are verifying the role of six detained and will take action based on their involvement, if any.”

In January, 14 youths were arrested by NIA from Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune for being part of IS-inspired Junodd-al-Khalifa-e-Hind. Security has been beefed up at vital installations and public places after an IS video last month vowed to take revenge for Babri demolition, Gujarat, Muzaffarnagar riots and Kashmir.