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Shivamogga: NIA joins probe into IS terror module, says home minister
The home minister said that the accused were booked under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
A day after the news of arrest of two suspected terrorists with Islamic State (ISIS) links from Shivamogga came to the fore, a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday arrived in the state.
The NIA has joined the Karnataka police to probe the Islamic State-linked terror module.“The NIA team has arrived to probe the IS-linked terror module which was busted on Monday,” Karnataka home minister Araga Jnanendra told reporters here on Wednesday.
The accused Syed Yasin (21), an electrical engineer from Shivamogga, Maaz Muneer Ahmed (22), an engineering student from Mangaluru, and Shariq (24) from Tirthahalli in Shivamogga were booked on Monday.
Shariq is absconding while the other two have been remanded in police custody till September 29, Shivamogga police said.
The home minister said that the accused were booked under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. “It has come to the knowledge of police that the module had previously carried out experimental blasts,” he added.
According to the first information report (FIR), the gang members were planning to “advance the cause of IS that was detrimental to the unity, integrity and sovereignty of India”. “An intense probe is going on investigate into their links with the organisation and about their activities. They are from Shivamogga and Tirthahalli with links to Mangaluru,” Jnanendra said.
Shivamogga superintendent of police B M Laxmi Prasad said police are cooperating with the NIA officials .“They are accused of plotting a conspiracy to commit a terror act, professing their ideologies and following the agenda of a terror organisation. The investigation will disclose more details,” Prasad said
Accused Syed Yasin’s father Ayub Khan told media persons that his son had been missing for over 15 days. He alleged that the police did not record the family’s complaint that Yasin was missing. On September 19 night, he received a phone call from the police informing him that his son had been arrested.
Meanwhile talking about recent arrests of Islamic State sympathisers in the state, additional director general of police (Intelligence), Karnataka, B Dayananda said that as per the state government’s records, 30 people have been arrested for links with the Islamic State so far.
“So far, the arrests have been made in connection with radicalisation and evidence of contact with members of the Islamic State. We have come across people who have been following IS propaganda constantly. Most of the arrests are related to this,” said the officer.
In 2014, an engineer by profession, Mehdi Masroor Biswas, who ran a pro-Islamic State Twitter handle, was arrested by the Bengaluru police. In the charge sheet, the Bengaluru police said that Biswas would monitor the developments of the organisation on the internet and TV and assist his followers, who were willing to enter the ISIS territory. He would tweet about vulnerable sections along the border on the basis of which volunteers entered the IS territory, the charge sheet added.
