Bengaluru:
An ophthalmologist has been arrested by the NIA for his alleged connection with the banned terror outfit Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). The National Investigation Agency said that 28-year-old Abdur Rahman, a resident of Basavanagudi in the city, was arrested on August 17.
The case was initially registered by the Delhi Police Special Cell in March 2020 after the arrest of a Kashmiri couple Jahanzaib Sami Wani and his wife Hina Bashir Beigh from Okhla Vihar, Jamia Nagar in Delhi, NIA said in a statement. The couple were found to have affiliations with ISKP, a banned terrorist organisation and a part of ISIS and involved in subversive and anti-national activities.
They were also found to be in touch with Abdullah Basith, who was already lodged in Tihar jail in another NIA case (ISIS Abu Dabhi Module), the NIA said. The agency said that during further investigation, it arrested two more people, who are residents of Pune,”for being part of the conspiracy to further the activities of ISIS/ISKP in India and to carry out subversive activities in the garb of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests.” Rahman, the NIA said, had confessed to having conspired with Sami and other Syria-based ISIS operatives on secure messaging platforms to further ISIS activities, adding that he was in the process of developing a medical application to help the injured ISIS cadres in the conflict-zones and a weaponry- related application for the benefit of ISIS fighters.
“Significantly, he had visited an ISIS medical camp in Syria in early 2014 for treatment of ISIS terrorists and stayed with Islamic State operatives for 10 days and returned to India,” the NIA stated. After his arrest, NIA searched three of his premises in Bengaluru with the assistance of Karnataka Police and seized digital devices, mobile phone, laptop containing incriminating material.
The agency said it would produce Rahman before the NIA Special Court at New Delhi and seek remand for his custodial interrogation. It’s investigations would continue, the agency said.
