JOIN USFive youths were arrested and six others including a techie were detained by NIA which claimed to have busted a “terror module” that is suspected to be linked to the Islamic State (IS) group after conducting searches at different locations in the old city here.
Some graduates were among those detained after the searches, the agency said.
“We have arrested five accused persons so far. Questioning and verification of the role of remaining six suspects are going on,” an NIA statement said.
The NIA sleuths also recovered weapons, ammunition, urea, acid, some chemicals, electronic gadgets and other incriminating material besides Rs 15 lakh in cash from their possession, officials of National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Hyderabad Police said, adding the youths were working at the behest of IS handlers.
NIA Inspector General Sanjeev Kumar Singh said the agency had carried out searches in 10 locations, including Moghalpura, Chandrayangutta, Bhavani Nagar, Mirchowk and Barkas in the old city. “Weapons, explosive material and huge (amount of) cash have been recovered so far,” he said.
During the raids, a large quantity of ammunition, explosives, two 9 mm pistols, an air gun, 25 mobile phones, masks, gloves, timers, a laptop and Rs 15 lakh in cash were recovered, the police said. The detained men were in touch with their handlers in Syria on a day-to-day basis and were plotting attacks.
Among those detained, only six names have been released to the media. They are Mohammad Illiyas Yazdani, Mohammad Ibrahim, Habib Mohammad, Mohammad Irfan, Muzaffar Hussain and Abdullah Bin Ahmad. An FIR was already registered against them on June 22. Sources said among the arrested were two brothers, a software engineer and a computer graduate. The identity of the others was not known.
According to police sources, the members of the new IS module were planning to incite communal riots in the city. It was also the first group that managed to get weapons and Improvised Explosive Devices and was believed to be in touch with other terror groups through social media network.