Two More Arrested In Hyderabad, Moneybags Of ISIS, Say Sources

Hyderabad: Two key operatives of the Islamic State of Syria and Egypt have been arrested from Hyderabad, sources in the National Investigation agency has said. Niamatullah Husseini, 42, was contributing funds to the Hyderabad cell of the group, and Athaullah Rehman, 30, a motivator and fundraiser, officials said.

The cell was detected last week following raids at 10 places in the city, following which five men were arrested. It was suspected that they were plotting a series of attacks on public places including religious sites and government buildings on behalf of the ISIS. Their questioning led to the fresh arrests.

Ataullah Rehman is said to have played a key role in the conspiracy, radicalising the group members. It is alleged that he had administered Bayah, or oath of allegiance, to ISIS chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, to the members of the group.

Naimatullah, who is also called Yasir or Abu Darda, has been called a key member for allegedly contributing money to a terrorist fund said to have been collected by the group. He was reportedly appointed an Amir and is said to have participated in key meetings to plot attacks.

The men arrested earlier included techie Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani, 30, and his brother, 24-year-old Mohammad Illyas Yazdani. The two were said to have travelled to Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Anantpur in Andhra Pradesh to procure weapons and material to make explosives.

Four men -- the ones arrested today and Ibrahim Yazdani and Habib Mohammad - have been sent to police custody for eight days.

Sources say that investigation revealed that Ibrahim had used tutanota.com, a secure encryption mail to be in touch with his handler abroad. The handler was passing him coordinates of places where logistics like weapons, urea etc were to be delivered, through this mail.

Some of these weapons, nitrate-based explosives enough to make several improvised devices, 40 cellphones, laptops, a pen drive, 32 sim cards and Rs. 15 lakh in cash seized during last week's raid, the NIA had said.

Ilyas Yazdani had allegedly purchased a weighing machine from a shop at Biwi Bazaar for weighing explosive precursors and chemicals.

A third accused, Fahad, brother-in-law of the Yazdani brothers, reportedly procured nine Aircel pre-activated sim cards from a promotional temporary stall at Charminar Bus stop. He had allegedly purchased five Chinese mobiles, which sources claim were to be used for planning and operations.