Fourteen men arrested recently by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for allegedly planning to carry out attacks ahead of the Republic Day were in touch with a handler, who was earlier with the Indian Mujahideen (IM) and now maintains strong links ISIS.
Official sources said these 14 men were in constant touch with each other since this month and were taking instructions from Safi Armar alias Yusuf, a former member of the IM and believed to have strong links with ISIS. They said the NIA will soon approach its foreign counterparts to locate the Internet servers used by these men while chatting and collect evidence.
The sources said they were also in touch with some people who were nabbed by the Delhi Police from Uttarakhand’s Roorkee and the four men, who had disappeared sometime ago from Malwani, Mulund and Malad areas of Maharashtra. While two returned, the other two had joined ISIS. These 14 were in touch with the other two people also, they claimed.
Fourteen people belonging to ‘Janood-ul-Khalifa -e-Hind’ (Army of Caliph of India), the Indian wing of IS, were picked up from various parts of the country for allegedly planning to carry out strikes. The agency claimed that the accused were regularly in touch with active members of ISIS in Syria through Internet chatting via Skype, Signal and Trillion and were also using the social networking sites to motivate young men to join the feared terror outfit.