NIA: Malwani man planned to kill Hindu body leader

Mumbai: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) in its chargesheet against four Islamic State recruiters claims Mohsin Sayyed, an auto driver from Malwani who was arrested in Delhi, had planned to eliminate Kamlesh Tiwari, controversial leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, and conducted a reconnaissance at Lucknow between December 2015 and January 2016. He had travelled to Delhi, Ghaziabad and Muzaffarnagar, where he came in contact with members of the Roorkee IS module.
The NIA added that Ayaz Mohammed, the former BPO employee from Malwani who sneaked away to Afghanistan and is said to have joined the IS in Iraq, had tried to brainwash more youths from his locality, but failed. The youths who had joined him to leave for Syria had eventually backed out, one by one.
Two youths, who left Malwani but returned from Chennai last December, had done so after “realising their mistakes”, says NIA. They are now among 102 witnesses in the case.
The chargesheet claims Ayaz had considerable influence over youths in his area. On his instructions, many of them had participated in an Eid namaaz at his house a day before it was declared in India last year. “Ayaz Mohammed claimed that Muslims around the world should celebrate Eid on the same day as Saudi Arabia to follow the puritan form of Islam,” the chargesheet said. After leaving home on the pretext of getting a visa for a job in Kuwait, Ayaz visited the Afghanistan embassy in Delhi and claimed he was a freelance photographer who wanted to visit the country. He reached Kabul and is now suspected to be in Iraq.
The chargesheet adds that absconding accused Yusuf al Hindi alias Shafi Armar, the chief IS recruiter for India, had hatched a conspiracy with Mohsin and another accused Rizwan Ahmed of UP — also in custody — to motivate more youths to join the banned terror organization. The NIA said that “in pursuance of the conspiracy, Mohsin had instigated the two witnesses and compelled them for hijarat with the ultimate objective of joining the ISIS”. Mohsin took the two to Chennai by bus and instructed them to arrange for funds and new SIM cards on fake identity before parting ways. But they developed cold feet and returned to Malwani.