14 youth in touch with ex-IM man, says NIA

Fourteen youths arrested recently by the NIA for allegedly planning to carry out attacks ahead of Republic Day were in touch with a handler who was earlier with Indian Mujahideen and now maintains strong links with terror group ISIS.

Official sources said these 14 men were in constant touch with each other since this month and were taking instructions from Shafi Armar, alias Yousuf, a former member of the Indian Mujahideen and believed to have strong links with the ISIS.

They said the National Investigation Agency will soon approach its foreign counterparts in order to locate the Internet servers used by these men while chatting and collect evidence in this regard.

The sources said they were also in touch with some people who were nabbed by the Delhi police from Uttarakhand’s Roorkee and the four youths who had disappeared sometime ago from Malwani, Mulund and Malad areas of Mahara-shtra. While two returned, the other two had joined ISIS. These 14 were in touch with the other two people also, they claimed.

NIA has arrested 14 people belonging to ‘Janood-ul-Khalifa -e-Hind’, the Indian wing of ISIS, who were picked up from various parts of the country for allegedly planning to carry out strikes at important installations.

The agency claimed that the accused were regularly in touch with active members of ISIS in Syria through Internet chatting via Skype, Signal and Trillion and were also using the social networking sites to motivate young men to join the feared terror outfit which has captured vast swathes in Syria and Iraq.