After the NIA arrested five Islamic State (ISIS) suspects on Friday, nine more youth were arrested by the central investigation agency on Saturday as it conducted raids and searches for the second con
After the NIA arrested five Islamic State (ISIS) suspects on Friday, nine more youth were arrested by the central investigation agency on Saturday as it conducted raids and searches for the second consecutive day across different cities to clamp down on the growing ISIS network in the country.
With the fresh arrests, the total number of arrests of ISIS operatives has gone up to 14 in two days. The nine persons had been under detention and were formally arrested by the agency on Saturday. The maximum arrests come from the IT hub of Bengaluru on Saturday with three youth arrested from the tech city.
Two others suspects belong to Hyderabad, one from Aurangabad and Mumbai in Maharashtra and one each from Tumkur in Karnataka and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.
The arrested youth are between 21 years to 36 years of age with the youngest being 20-year-old Mohammed Aleem from Lucknow and 21-year-old Asif Ali alias Arman Saani from Bengaluru.
The other arrested persons have been identified by the NIA as Imran Khan Pathan from Aurangabad; Suhail Ahmed alias Sohail alias Hafes Saab (23) and Muhammed Abdul Ahad alias Bade Amir alias Sulaiman (46) from Bengaluru; 33-year-old Sayed Mujahid from Karnataka; 33-year-old Muhammad Obedullah Khan alias Obaid alias Talha and 24-year-old Abu Anas from Hyderabad and Mohammad Hussain Khan alias Jamil (36), resident of Mazgaon in Mumbai.
“The arrested accused persons will be produced before the respective local courts for obtaining transit remand,” the NIA officials said.
The clampdown on the ISIS suspects comes a day after the agency picked up 14 youth for their online linkages with the IS operatives, led by a former Indian Mujahideen commander Shafi Armar, brother of Maulana Abdul Qadir Sultan Armar, a former IM member and the first Indian who died fighting for the IS in Syria.
The arrests also comes ahead of Republic Day and the high threat perception of a possible terror strike in the country. According to the security agencies, the arrested IS sympathisers were plotting attacks in different parts of the country.
