Key ISIS operative who radicalised Hyderabad youth, sentenced to 7 years imprisonment

Hyderabad: The NIA special court in Delhi on Tuesday sentenced Adnan Hassan, an ISIS operative from Karnataka, to seven years in jail in a case related to a ISIS Abu Dhabi module. Arrested in 2016, along with Sheikh Azhar ul Islam of Jammu and Kashmir and Mohammed Farhan Shaikh from Maharashtra, the NIA accused the trio of identifying, motivating, radicalising, recruiting, and training susceptible youth for planning and execution of terrorist attacks across the country.

Among the people they recruited, said the NIA, were Hyderabadi-based Abdullah Basith and Abdul Qadeer. The NIA court also imposed a Rs 4,000 fine on Adnan Hassan who was an accountant in Dubai.

NIA found that Adnan Hassan used online platforms and methods, including posts, news articles, comments, videos, images, and the commentary of Islamic scholars, to motivate individuals to join ISIS. He also provided financial support to Abdullah Basith and other associates.

Adnan along with his two associates were arrested in January 2016, after being deported from Dubai through the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLAT). Islam and Farhan Shaikh were found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for seven years in 2017. Basith and Quadeer were also sentenced to five years imprisonment by the NIA court at Delhi in August.