Bengaluru doctor held for links with ISIS-affiliated outfit

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday arrested a 28-year-old ophthalmologist from Bengaluru for allegedly having links with Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), a banned outfit part of the Islamic State.

The arrested has been identified as Abdur Rahman, who, the NIA said, had even visited Syria for treating IS operatives.

An NIA team along with IB officials raided Abdur’s apartment in Basavanagudi and detained him after an inquiry that lasted more than five hours on Monday.

According to a statement released by the NIA, Abdur is working as an ophthalmologist at MS Ramaiah Medical College. Later, MS Ramaiah Medical College came out with a statement, saying that Abdur completed MS Ophthalmology in July 2020 from the college and they were not aware of his activities outside the campus.

Sources in NIA explained that Abdur was supposed to join the MS Ramaiah Covid Centre on Wednesday as a Covid Warrior. “But we arrested him on Monday as he is an accused in a terror-related case,” an official said.

The case against ISKP was initially registered by the Delhi Police Special Cell in March 2020, following the arrest of Kashmiri couple Jahanzaib Sami Wani and his wife Hina Bashir Beigh from Okhla Vihar, Jamia Nagar, in New Delhi.

The couple was found to be having affiliation with ISKP and was believed to have been involved in subversive and anti-national activities.

They were also said to be in touch with Abdullah Basith, who is in Tihar jail in IS Abu Dabhi module case.

This apart, NIA had arrested two more accused Sadiya Anwar Sheikh and Nabeel Siddick Khatri, both residents of Pune, for being part of a conspiracy to further the activities of IS/ISKP in India.

Abdur confessed to conspiring with accused Jahanzaib Sami and other Syria-based IS operatives on secure messaging platforms to take forward the organisation’s activities.

He was in the process of developing a medical application for helping injured IS cadres in conflict zones and a weaponry related application for IS fighters.

Abdur is said to have visited the IS medical camp in Syria in early 2014 for the treatment of IS terrorists, and stayed with them for about 10 days before returning to India, according to a NIA officer.

Following the arrest, NIA carried out searches in three premises belonging to Abdur in Bengaluru with the assistance of Bengaluru City Police and seized digital devices including mobile phone, laptop, pen drive and other devices featuring incriminating material.

He will be produced before the NIA special court in New Delhi and the investigative agency will seek his custody for further interrogation.

Apartment residents revealed that they only saw Abdur when he was going to college. His parents also stay in Bengaluru.