NIA quizzes 5 ISIS suspects individually

The five men who were arrested by NIA in connection with the ISIS conspiracy were interrogated individually at a secret location in Shamirpet on Saturday.

Officials are trying to extract information on any more explosives hidden by the suspects. The source of money is also being probed. The suspects will be taken to Nanded, where they are suspected to have procured arms, for scene reconstruction and then to other places on Sunday, NIA sources said.

During the grilling, it came to light that the five suspects had stayed in a lodge at Ananthapur few months ago. Investigation officials are trying to find if they had procured explosives or arms from there.

The NIA had told the court in their affidavit on Friday that the suspects have to be interrogated at Rajasthan and Maharashtra among other places. During the 12-day custody, NIA would take them to Rajasthan, from where another ISIS sympathiser and a Karnataka native were arrested last year.

According to intelligence sources, NIA could not extract enough information during the interrogation on Wednesday as the suspect was not ready to divulge any details. Probe officials suspect that more explosives are hidden in Hyderabad and there are more operatives, who assisted the five men.

“The NIA officials are extracting information from the electronic gadgets they seized from the suspects. A few of the gadgets are password protected,” said a senior intelligence official.

As many as 10 teams of NIA officials including one each from Kerala and Delhi are involved in the investigation.