The 24 year old, Md Abdullah Basith, of Hafeezbaba Nagar and Md Abdul Qhadeen, 19 years old, of Chandrayangutta, Hyderabad were arrested after they were questioned by the NIA. Around 20 suspects were interrogated and the allegiance of these two to the ISIS came out. The details of the alleged conspiracy and their role in furthering the ideology to carry out terror acts in the country are now being ascertained.
The two accused have been in touch with Adnan Hassan, who was earlier arrested by NIA in 2016. After five days of questioning over 20 suspects for their alleged links to ISIS operatives earlier arrested in Delhi, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday arrested these two persons.
Searches were conducted at seven places across Hyderabad in August first week. Certain incriminating materials that were seized then has been sent to CFSL-Hyderbad for analysis and data extraction.
Earlier in January 2016, NIA-New Delhi registered a case against Sheikh Azhar ul Islam, Mohammed Farhan Shaikh and Adnan Hassan for their alleged role in a conspiracy to identify, motivate, radicalise, recruit and train Indian Muslim youth on behalf of the ISIS to carry out terror activities. They were charged under Section 120B of IPC and 18, 18A and 18 B Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
After completion of investigation, NIA filed charge-sheet on July 25, 2016 against the three accused persons in the NIA Special Court, Patiala House Courts, New Delhi.
According to NIA, two of the accused – Sheikh Azhar ul Islam and Mohammed Farhan Shaikh pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment, while trial against accused Adnan Hassan is still going on. As further investigation was going on, NIA received a fresh input that one Abdullah Basith of Hyderabad was in touch with Adnan Hassan and some others, who were conspiring to further the activities of ISIS. Following this lede, the agency conducted searches across Hyderabad.
Abdullah Basith was previously arrested in December 2015 by Hyderabad police when he and his two friends- Syed Omer Farooq Hussaini(26) and Maaz Hasan Farooq(26) were on their way to Syria to join ISIS. The trio had left for Nagpur via Adilabad on their bikes. As it was too cold, they had left the bikes at a petrol station and hired a car to Nagpur.
Their plan was to reach Kashmir by flight from Nagpur and then cross over to Afghanistan and then proceed to Syria. Their plan was foiled by Telangana police who shared an input to Maharashtra ATS who nabbed them at the Nagpur airport. Their alleged handlers Shafi Armar too was arrested.
Investigators had found that it was Adnan Hassan who funded their plan. Basith was charge-sheeted and is out on bail in the case.
Basith is also the nephew of SIMI ex-president Syed Salahuddin who died in a road mishap in Nalgonda in October 2014.
In 2014 too, Basith along with two friends was caught in Kolkata while they were trying to reach Bangladesh as part of their plan to proceed to Syria. They were counselled and let off back then.
