In a sensational disclosure, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has said that a dentist and a computer applications specialist were the key people involved in sending a group of six to seven Muslim youths from Bengaluru to Syria to join the Islamic terror outfit – Islamic State back in 2013-14.
According to the reports, the NIA has booked 29-year-old Muhammad Tauqir Mahmood and 28-years-old Zuhaib Hameed alias Shakeel Manna under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). A case was also registered by the NIA against these two Muslim youth on September 29, who earlier lived in Bengaluru but later escaped to Saudi Arabia.
The two Muslim youths had reportedly built contacts with Islamic terror outfit ISIS through a schoolmate from Saudi Arabia. Tauqir and another NIA suspect, Shihab had studied in Saudi Arabia during their school years.
The duo recruited Muslims youths to join IS in Syria
The existence of terrorist recruiters was revealed after the arrest of Abdur Rahman, a 28-year-old ophthalmologist from Bengaluru, who had conspired with a Kashmiri couple – Jahanzaib Sami and Hina Bashir, arrested in Delhi in March for their links to Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) unit in India. The terrorist couple linked to the ISIS was accused of motivating Muslims to unite against CAA and carry out terror strikes inside the country.
The investigations had revealed that Rahman had travelled to Syria back in 2013-14 with the assistance of Hameed and Mahmood. Two other Muslim youths who had joined IS – Faiz Masood, an MBA degree-holder, and Abdul Subha was killed during their stay in Syria.
On 7 October, NIA had also arrested a business analyst named Ahamed Abdul Cader from Chennai and a rice merchant identified as Irfan Nasir from Bengaluru for allegedly funding the Bengaluru-based ISIS module. Ahamed Abdul Cader, Irfan Nasir and their associates had arranged funds through donations and own sources for the visit of accused Abdur Rahman and other Muslim youth of Bengaluru to Syria to join ISIS.