ISIS operatives in India held 5 out of 9 meetings in Karnataka

India

oi-Vicky

Bengaluru, July 20: The investigations that were conducted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into an ISIS case relating to India shows how Karnataka has become central to the conspiracy. Out of the nine crucial meetings that the alleged operatives held, five were in Karnataka, the NIA states.

The NIA learnt that the meetings in Karnataka were held on a regular basis where a conspiracy was hatched not just to recruit more youth and establish a Caliphate in India, but also to carry out attacks in various parts of the country.

The NIA had on December 9, 2015 arrested 18 people from across the country after it had been found that they were part of an Indian ISIS module. However two were granted conditional pardon by the court following which a chargesheet against the rest was filed.

Karnataka centric to probe into ISIS

Apart from the meetings that were held in Karnataka, the NIA also states that the driving force behind this module was Shafi Armar from Bhatkal. Shafi and his brother Sultan had started the Ansar-ul-Tawhid, a recruiting wing for the ISIS in India. However with the heat building up on the outfit they changed the name to Junood ul-Khilafa-Hind.

The meetings in Karnataka that the alleged operatives had were held at Devarayana Dargah, state forest Tumkur, in the month of August, 2015. The second meeting was held at Deoband in September 2015.

This was followed by another meeting at Tumkur hills in October 2015. The fourth and fifth meeting were held at the residences of two accused persons Suhail and Afzal at Bengaluru on October 24th and 25th 2015 respectively.

The rest of the meetings were held in Lucknow on November 1 2015, Hyderabad on December 14 2015 and Pune on December 18 2015. The last meeting was at Pune.

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