Hyderabad: A video telecast by a news channel in May 2017, about the interview of an arrested Islamic State sympathiser, Abdul Basith, changed the life of Chandrayangutta resident Mohammed Qhadeer completely.
The young Qhadeer got inspired and went searching for Basith and met him. But he came under the National Investigation Agency’s radar within no time and was caught just days before he started making an IED by watching videos on YouTube.
NIA sleuths arrested Qhadeer, 19, on August 12, 2018, with Basith, when they were planning attacks in India at the behest of an online handler of Islamic State terrorist organisation.
During meetings with Basith at his furniture-making unit, Qhadeer was given information about ISIS in Syria. “Qhadeer expressed his interest to leave the country and join IS, but Basith told him it was not the right time and he was to know more about it,” NIA sleuths told court in the chargesheet.
“Qhadeer later became friends with Basith’s friends Maaz Hassan Farooqi, Omer Farooq Hussaini, Abdul Abrar, Hassan Ansari and Mutiur-Rehman, who were also IS sympathisers. They participated in several meetings to discuss ISIS ideology and used Telegram, an application, to converse with each other to avoid tracking by the agencies.”
But except for Qhadeer, none of Basith’s friends showed any interest in taking active participation. With this, Basith who was in touch with Huzaifa Bakistani, an online handler of IS from Pakistan and living in Afghanistan, shared Qhadeer’s contact to ask what to do to for migration to Syria.
“After several meetings and indoctrination by Basith, Huzaifa and US-based IS handler Matin Azizi, Qhadeer started watching videos on YouTube to learn how to assemble and fabricate IEDs and also purchased chemicals and other material through Amazon,” the sleuths who arrested him days before making an IED at his house in Chandrayangutta, told the court.
Qhadeer used at least 10 social media accounts to keep in touch with the online IS handlers. “His Telegram Id was ‘IronMan’, which he created using a US number purchased from a website. He used most of the accounts to propagate terrorist ideology by creating different groups,” the chargesheet read.
