The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday conducted searches at the residence of a suspect, Talha Liyakat Khan (38), in Kondhwa area of Pune city, in connection with the probe into the case of arrest of a Kashmiri couple two years back for their alleged links to Islamic State-Khorasan Province (IS-KP), the Afghanistan-based faction of the Islamic State (IS).
The couple, identified as Jahanzaib Sami Wani and his wife Hina Bashir Beigh, was first arrested by Delhi police on March 8, 2020. Later, the investigation into the case was taken over by the NIA.
During further investigation, NIA arrested four more persons in the case, including Sadiya Anwar Shaikh, a journalism student from Vishrantwadi in Pune, who was then 20 years old. The other three accused included Nabeel Siddiqui Khatri, a resident of Kondhwa area, Abdulla Basith, and Abdul Rehman alias Dr Brave, an MBBS doctor from Bengaluru.
A press release issued by the NIA on Monday stated, “Till now, six persons have been chargesheeted in this case for conspiring to propagate the ideology of ISIS by garnering support of like-minded people to carry out terrorist activities in India, establishing cells to work for ISIS, raising funds, collecting funds, making IEDs and executing target killings.
“During the search today at the premises of suspect Talha Khan, various incriminating documents and digital devices have been seized. Further investigation in the case continues,” the press release added.
Shaikh and Khatri were arrested by the NIA in July 2020. Sources said Talha Khan is suspected to have association with Sadia which is being investigated.
Wani and Beigh were allegedly found to be in contact with Khatri, who was operating a gymnasium in Pune, and Sadiya. NIA had accused Khatri of helping plan “violent terrorist attacks in India”, while Sadiya was alleged to be trying to “build up a cadre of IS in India”.
Sadiya has been on the radar of investigating agencies since 2015, when she was a minor. While no offence was lodged against her in Maharashtra, the state Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) had, in December 2015, provided counselling to her as she was found “mentally set to go to Syria for joining the IS, after being influenced by the online operatives of the terror groups”.
On January 26, 2018, Sadiya was put under arrest by the Jammu and Kashmir police due to her “suspicious activities”, but was later released due to lack of evidence and reunited with her family. She held a press conference a few days later in which she claimed that she had gone to Jammu and Kashmir to secure admission in a nursing course and that she didn’t “want to look back at her past”.
Wani and Beigh were also alleged to be in touch with Basith, a Hyderabad youth who was also arrested in another NIA case pertaining to ISIS’s Abu Dhabi module.
NIA has claimed that Rahman alias Dr Brave, who was allegedly in communication with Wani, had “got radicalised listening to online lectures of hardline Islamic preachers” such as Anwar al Awlaki and travelled to Syria in 2013 and “participated in various terrorist activities of ISIS”.
NIA has alleged that using his “knowledge of Ophthalmic Lasers and Medical Science”, Rahman made efforts to “develop applications for medical and military requirements of ISIS” and 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.”