India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI—Giving a new spin to the arrest of a Kashmiri couple, National Investigation Agency (NIA) has claimed that their alleged associate from Bengaluru Abdur Rehman was preparing a laser-guided Anti-Tank Missile application for controlling the trajectory of the missiles for enhancing their effectiveness for furthering the cause of the Islamic State (IS).
An MBBS doctor, Abdur Rehman alias Dr. Brave was arrested by NIA in August last year for his links with Kashmiri couple Jahanzaib Sami and Hina Kausar Beg.
The Kashmiri couple was arrested from Delhi’s Jamia Nagar in March last year on the allegations of being IS members and instigating violence at the anti-CAA protests.
NIA on Tuesday filed a chargesheet against Dr. Abdur Rehman for his alleged association with the Islamic State and for allegedly preparing the app that could guide IS missiles.
“The accused has been charge-sheeted for furthering the ideology and activities of the proscribed terrorist organization ISIS/ISKP (Islamic State in Khorasan Province) in connivance with co-accused Jahanzaib Sami and others for committing subversive/anti-national activities in India,” an NIA statement said.
NIA claimed that Rehman got radicalized listening to “online lectures of hardline Islamic preachers” including Anwar al Awlaki. The agency also noted that he travelled to Syria in 2013 and “participated in various terrorist activities of ISIS”.
“Utilizing his knowledge of Ophthalmic Lasers and Medical Science, he made efforts to develop applications for medical and military requirements of ISIS. To this end, he was in regular communication with ISIS terrorists located abroad as well as in India, including Jahanzaib Sami, on Threema, a secure messaging platform. Consequently, he had achieved significant progress towards developing a medical application for treatment of ISIS terrorists and also a laser-guided Anti-Tank Missile application for controlling the trajectory of the missiles for enhancing their effectiveness for furthering the cause of ISIS,” the NIA chargesheet said.
On September 2 last year, NIA had filed chargesheet against five accused including Sami and Beigh. Both were arrested by Delhi Police in March last year. Later NIA had taken their custody in connection with its probe into an IS terror conspiracy involving Hyderabad youth Abdullah Basith.
NIA said Dr. Rahman’s examination had led to further arrests of people who allegedly supported his travel to Syria.
“Further investigation resulted in busting of a module wherein it was revealed that accused Ahamed Abdul Cader, Irfan Nasir, and their associates were members of Hizb-ut-Tehrir, and they had formed a group called ‘Quran Circle’ which radicalized gullible Muslim youth in Bengaluru and funded their visit to a conflict zone in Syria to aid and assist the ISIS terrorists,” NIA had earlier said.
NIA claimed that Cader and Nasir similarly funded other youths. “Two of such youths got killed in Syria,” the agency said.