In countrywide swoop, NIA picks up 14 IS sympathisers

In a major anti-terror swoop across the country ahead of Republic Day, 14 youths were arrested or detained by the NIA and other security agencies in the wee hours on Friday after they allegedly formed a module on the pattern of dreaded ISIS to carry out strikes at vital installations.

A possible attack may have been averted with the crackdown that came at a time when the country was in a state of heightened alert, as investigators questioned the arrested youths for possible links with the ISIS. Some of the youths are stated to be software engineers.

The raids were carried out simultaneously in five states of Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh where 14 people were “arrested or detained”. They were part of a group named ‘Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind’ (Army of Caliph of India), a terror group which has almost similar ideologies that of ISIS.

An official spokesman of the Union Home Ministry maintained that five people have been arrested “so far” and another nine have been detained while sources privy to the developments in Mumbai and Bangalore said eight people were detained besides the five arrests while one person has been let off. The sources said the eight detained people are likely to formally arrested on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a missing taxi from Pathankot and its driver, who was found mysteriously dead, sent Delhi Police into a tizzy ahead of the January 26 Republic Day celebrations. The white Alto taxi was hired by three young men from Pathankot, where the Air Force base was attacked by terrorists earlier this month. The body of the driver, Vijay Kumar, was found on Wednesday in Kangra in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.

This is the second incident within a week of missing vehicles. The brand new Tata Safari with a beacon was stolen from the home of Indo Tibetan Border Police’s Inspector General, Anand Swarup. The SUV of a senior border police officer was stolen from Noida, and it is yet to be recovered.

Two missing vehicles within a week have rung alarm bells after the January 2 Pathankot attack, in which the stolen car of a police officer played a role. The blue beacon on the Mahindra XUV car of police officer Salwinder Singh helped the terrorists get past several check posts a day before the attack in which seven soldiers were martyred.