Hyderabad: In December 2015, the police had caught Mohammed Abdullah Basith, Syed Omer Farooq Hussaini and Maaz Hasan Farooq when they had attempted to escape to Afghanistan and Iraq via Kashmir to join the Islamic State.
Then two of them, who were students, had told the police that they were supposed to meet Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief Asiya Andrabi and seek help to cross the border into PoK. From there, they had planned to travel to Afghanistan and other countries. All three are nephews of ex-SIMI president Syed Salahuddin.
The then joint commissioner of police, T. Prabhakar Rao, had said that they were motivated by online videos and IS propaganda. The recent setbacks IS suffered also motivated them to go and join the outfit.
They left their mobiles at home so that they could not be tracked. It was the second time Basith and Maaz were caught by the police.
In September 2014, Basith was arrested along with Maaz when he was allegedly trying to go to Syria or Iraq via Bangladesh, along with two other young men. But the police foiled their attempt in Kolkata and brought them to Hyderabad.
They were counselled in the presence of their parents and let off.
Basith is the son of Mohammed Abdul Arif, a furniture store owner. A resident of Naseeb Nagar, he dropped out of his B Tech (CSE) course.
Basith again had a tryst with the law enforcement agency in May 2017, when the police registered a case of sedition against him and two others Salman Moinuddin and Anan Qureshi. This was after a news channel aired their interview allegedly claiming that they were continuing links with ISIS. Both the cases are being investigated.
