ISIS case: NIA arrests 2 Hyderabad men

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday said it had arrested two persons in Hyderabad for their connection with dreaded terrorist organization ISIS. The accused have been identified as Abdullah Basith (24), son of Mohammed Abdul Arif, of Hafeezbaba Nagar, and Mohd Abdul Qhadeer (19) son of Abdul Quddus, both hailing from old city in Hyderabad.

The arrests came after a series of raids by NIA sleuths at seven places in the old city on August 6th and interrogation of suspects for one week. “A lot of incriminating material was recovered and seized. The same has been sent to Central Forensic Science Laboratory Hyderabad for analysis and data extraction,” the NIA press release said.

The initial questioning has brought out the involvement of accused Abdullah Basith, Mohd Abdul Qhadeer and other associates pledging their allegiance to the proscribed terrorist organization ISIS to carry out terror activities in India.

On 28 January 2016, NIA had registered a Case in New Delhi under Section 120B of IPC and 18, 18A and 18 B Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, against Sheikh Azhar ul Islam, Mohammed Farhan Shaikh and Adnan Hassan for the allegations that the accused persons and their other unknown associates were members of ISIS and were involved in a conspiracy to identify, motivate, radicalize, recruit and train Indian Muslim youth on behalf of the proscribed outfit ISIS to carry out terror activities. All the three accused were subsequently arrested by NIA.

After completion of the investigation, NIA filed charge-sheet on 25 July 2016 against them in the NIA Special Court, New Delhi. During the trial, two accused persons Sheikh Azhar ul Islam and Mohammed Farhan Shaikh pleaded guilty and were sentenced to seven years of imprisonment, while trial against accused Adnan Hassan is still going on. Further investigation was also continued against other accused persons.

During further investigation, a fresh input was received from reliable sources that one Abdullah Basith resident of Hyderabad, who was connected with accused Adnan Hassan and some of his associates are in regular touch with each other and conspiring to further the activities of ISIS in India.

“Based on these inputs Mohammed Abdullah Basith, and Abdul Qhadeer have been arrested on Sunday to ascertain the details of the ongoing conspiracy and also their role played in furthering the ISIS ideology to carry out terrorist acts in India,” the NIA release said.