JOIN USThree Indian sympathisers of Islamic State (IS), including one from Karnataka, were arrested here after they were deported from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on charges of conspiring to carry out terror attacks in India and other countries.
The arrested youths, Adnan Hussain, Mohammad Farhan and Sheikh Azhar Al Islam are from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Jammu & Kashmir respectively. The NIA arrested them late on Friday after intense interrogation, sources said.
They were detained soon after they landed in Delhi on Thursday night. Investigators suspect that these youth, along with their other unknown associates, were involved in a conspiracy to “identify, motivate, radicalise, recruit and train” youths in India and other countries to plan and execute terror strikes in India and abroad.
The youth are believed to be part of the Abu Dhabi module of IS, investigators claimed. The NIA has registered a case under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, including those related to organising training camps and for recruiting people for acts of terror. They will be produced before an NIA special court on Saturday.
This is not the first time the UAE is deporting Indians who are suspected to have links with the IS. In September, the UAE had deported four Indians. It had also deported Afsha Jabeen alias Nicky Joseph, who is claimed to have been involved in recruiting youths for IS online.
Indian intelligence agencies has reports of 23 Indians, including some former Indian Mujahideen terrorists, on joining IS. Six of them have been killed in IS-held areas in Iraq and Syria. Security agencies picked up more than a dozen people last week on charges of trying to launch terror strikes.