Mumbai cops to go to Kerala for custody of 2 held by ATS

A team of Mumbai crime branch officials will soon leave for Kerala to take custody of the two accused who have been arrested by the Kerala Anti-Terrorism Squad for instigating people to join banned terrorist organisation Islamic State (ISIS).

Meanwhile crime branch officials who are working on the case of Ashfaque Kadar Khan, who has joined the ISIS after leaving India, said his father Abdul Majeed Kadar Khan recently registered a police complaint against four accused in the Nagpada police station.

Officials said, “We have taken statements of (Ashfaque’s) family members, his father, mother and brother. We’re now investigating to know with whom he was in contact with for the past few years. He was planning to join ISIS for the past two years and was always in contact with the main accused Arshi Qureshi and Rizwan Khan in Mumbai.”

A senior official said, “We need the custody of those two accused as they are key persons in the case from who we would get more information about Ashfaque. We will request the Kerala police to share details of their investigation with us to join the dots between some information we have. We will send our team to Kerala to get custody of those two accused. Ashfaque, who lastly sent a message to his brother informing he is in Darul Islam and will not return home in the future, left the country via Kerala. His route to reach ISIS is still unclear but he was there with the other 20 villagers who left to join ISIS from Kerala two months ago.”