Even as National Investigation Agency officials continued their questioning of the five terror suspects in Hyderabad on the first day of their 12 days custody, gaping holes have started emerging in the story the agency had put out about them as well as about the items they recovered from their homes.
NIA sources said that the five persons were non cooperative during the questioning and denying their involvement in any terror plot or any links with a handler in Iraq or Syria.
A court in Hyderabad remanded the five Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani (30), Habeeb Mohammed (32), Mohammed Ilyas Yazdani (24), Abdullah Bin Ahmed Al Amoodi alias Fahad (31) and Muzaffar Hussain Rizwan (29) to NIA’s custody on Friday. The NIA officials immediately shifted the five from Charalapally Central Jail to an undisclosed location for questioning.
Sources said that they were trying to find out how these people came in contact with the ISIS handler and whether there were any other people involved in the conspiracy.
Sources said that the agency was also planning to take these people to Nanded in Maharashtra and Rajasthan to recreate the scene of their attempts to purchase arms there.
NIA had picked up 11 youth in the old city of Hyderabad in a pre dawn swoop in different localities and after questioning released 6 of them while arresting the five. The NIA had said that it recovered chemicals which can be used to make explosives, two semi automatic pistols, one air gun, 34 mobile phones, 1 laptop and other electronic and electrical items.
But the families of the arrested persons have come out with their own version which can raise serious questions and doubts about the NIA statement and the stories in the media attributed to the NIA.
The common thread in what all the kin of these people have said that the NIA was framing the innocents who had nothing to do with terror and ISIS.
Younger brother of one of the accused Abdullah Bin Ahmad Al Amoodi alia Fahad denied the recovery of any explosives from his home during the raid.
The brother who does not want to give his name due to the fears of stigma said that what the NIA took away from home was a paint remover liquid and drums of paint as his brother was in the process of setting up hydro graphics workshop. “It is laughable that the NIA is now saying these were liquid explosives”, he said.
This flies in the face of the NIA claims that they had seized chemicals suspected to be urea/ammonium nitrate powder and their mixture with sugar, as well as bottles containing mineral acid, acetone, hydrogen peroxide which are precursor substance for making deadly explosive substances.
Moreover media had reported attributing to NIA sources said that these materials were similar to explosive materials used by the terrorists in Brussels and Paris.
Mohammed Ibraheem Yazdani and Ilyas Yazdani were among the five arrested by the NIA saying they were in touch with the handler in Iraq or Syria. But his sisters and other family members said that NIA was deliberately spreading canard to damage their reputation and frame them in a false case.
The family members said that even the personal details given by the NIA about the two brothers were wrong. “NIA described Ibraheem as a software engineer when he was an electrical engineer. Ilyas was referred to as computer engineer when he was only Intermediate pass and was doing a petty job in E-Seva Center as data operator, they said.
The family was also shocked by the reports in the media that they belonged to Shia community. “Nothing in these stories is correct about our brothers”, one of the sisters Alema Begum said.
The womenfolk also said that what the NIA was claiming to be material meant for making explosives were the items of day to day use. “Our late father was an electrical contractor and it is natural that wires and electrical tools will be there at our home”, she said.
About the 34 mobile phones the NIA said it recovered from the arrested persons, it turns out that the raiding teams took away phones of all the family members in ten house which they searched.
“They snatched away even the phones of women members of the family and now saying they found it from the suspected terrorists”, she said.
About the laptop which NIA was showing among the seized material, family said it was broken and kids use to play with it as a toy.
Family of another arrested person Muzaffar Rizwan said that NIA was giving a wrong impression that the RS 15 lakh found at home was meant for the terrorist activities. “The money belonged to my father and it was transferred to our joint account for business purpose”, said Rizwan’s wife Nadera Parveen. “We have given all the details of the transaction including the source of the money but they are still insisting that the money was for carrying out blasts. Tis is great injustice with us”, she said.
Apart from those arrested the families of even those released were also terrified and confused and the neighbors were reluctant to talk to them or about them.
One of them A M Azhar was picked up from his home soon after he had finished Sehri or pre meal dawn of Ramazan. Throughout the day he was asked about links with ISIS and Azhar was clueless. It turned out that he caught the attention as he used to pray in the same mosque where other suspects used to come. Azhar believes that it was a case of mistaken identity but other family members were afraid that this will stigmatize him and hurt his future.
NIA and the Hyderabad police sources say that three of the six released persons were still being watched because of suspicions about them.