Telangana Police Busts ISIS Terror Plot Linked To AP, 2 Held

The police arrested the two operatives – Siraj-ur-Rehman (29) of Vizianagaram and Sayeed Sameer (28), a resident of Bhoiguda in Secunderabad and produced them in the court here.

A senior police official confirmed Deccan Chronicle on Sunday that the two operatives procured explosives online and carried out a trial of explosions in Vizianagaram. With the success of the trial of explosions, the duo wanted to execute blasts. “We are not sure whether Hyderabad is in their list,” he said.

Explaining the sequence of circumstances that led to thwarting of attempts of two ISIS operatives, the official said that both Siraj and Sameer came in contact through social media and allegedly started interacting about IS activities.

After gaining trust among themselves, the duo decided to carry out terror activities. Accordingly, they procured explosives by placing an order online and conducted a trial at a secluded place in Vizianagaram.

With the success of trial of explosion, Siraj and Sameer were hatching a plan to do “something big”. They were conspiring to trigger blasts with the help of a handler in Saudi Arabia. In fact, the handler was found to be indoctrinating Siraj and Sameer to execute blasts.

“We are not sure the exact places where the IS operatives are planning to trigger blasts,” the official said. Acting on a tip-off, a police team from Telangana first raided the house of Siraj in Vizianagaram and based on his information, they took Sameer into custody.

He said a detailed probe was on to find out from where the operatives procured explosives after placing an order online and how they acquired skills to assemble them to trigger a bomb blast. Efforts were also on to collect more details about the handler in Saudi Arabia, he added.