The National Investigation Agency on Tuesday arrested two more members of a suspected ISIS-linked terror module in Hyderabad.
NIA said one of those arrested Yasir Niamatullah was the chief of the module and the other Ataullah Rahman was the fundraiser.
The arrests came two weeks after busting a suspected ISIS linked terror module in Hyderabad and took five members into custody.
The NIA also sought additional 8-days custody for Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani and Habeeb Ahmad who had been arrested earlier. The judge remanded them to NIA’s custody till July 26.
NIA sources said that the latest arrest were made on the basis of information gathered during the questioning of the five members arrested earlier during the 12-day custody which ended on Tuesday.
All the seven arrested persons were produced in the Nampally court this morning. The NIA sought additional 8-days custody for the accused No 1 Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani and accused No. 2 Habeeb Ahmad. The judge remanded them to NIA’s custody till July 26.
During the custody the five members of the module were questioned extensively about their activities, source of funding and their plans to carryout terror attacks in the city.
The NIA had also taken the module members to Nanded and Anantapur where they had tried to procure arms and ammunition from the gunrunners, NIA sources said.
The NIA teams also conducted searches at the residences of some of the accused and recovered ammunition, a computer and a scanner.
The NIA sources said that the module members were techno savvy and used encryption software “tutanota” to keep their interaction with the Syria based handler secure and off the radar of the security agencies.
According to the NIA the handler had used this secure channel to send the coordinates where the weapons and ammunitions had to be delivered.
NIA also identified the two shops in the vicinity of historic Charminar from where another module member Fahad had purchased nine Aircel SIMs and five Chinese made mobile phones. Ibrahim Yazdani had also purchased a weighing scale to weigh the exact amount of the chemicals to prepare the explosives, the agency source claimed.
While Yasir resides in Moghulpura locality of Hyderabad, Ataullah Rahman is the resident of Bandlaguda area in the city.
NIA sources said that the two were among the 11 people who were detained on June 29. But they along with four others were later let off. However after further investigations and on the basis of concrete evidence they were rearrested on Tuesday.
NIA sources said that while Yasir was the Amir of the Hyderabad module, Ataullah was working as a motivator and a recruiter for the ISIS.
Sources said that Yasir had directly spoken to the shadowy chief of ISIS Abu Bakar Al Baghdadi and at his behest the module was planning to carry out the blasts in Hyderabad.
Yasir and Ataullah were produced in the Nampally Court and the magistrate remanded them to 14 days custody.