Six arrested in Karnataka for IS links

Bengaluru, Jan 22: Six youths, including four from Bengaluru, have been arrested in Karnataka for alleged links with the Islamic State, Home Minister G. Parameshwara said on Friday.

“Four people were arrested in Bengaluru and one each in Mangaluru and Tumakuru,” he told the media on the margins of an event here. Those nabbed in Bengaluru are Asif, Afzal, Sayed and Ahad.

Suspect Nazmul Huda, arrested from Bajpe suburb in Mangalore, is also accused of encouraging youths to join the Islamic State terrorist outfit. He is a dropout from a private engineering college in Bengaluru.

Arrested in Tumakuru was Syed Mujahid Husain, 25.

Mangaluru and Tumakuru are located about 350 km 70 km respectively from Bengaluru.

“The suspects are being interrogated by NIA (National Investigation Team) about their roles and links,” Parameshwara said.

The arrests followed raids by NIA teams on the rented houses and hideouts of the suspects in the city.

Huge quantities of arms and ammunition were recovered and seized from the rented house of two of the suspects.

Earlier, Karnataka Director General of Police Om Prakash told IANS that the Anti-Terrorist Squad was not informed and its help was not sought by the central security agencies which made the arrests.

“Central agencies have the judicial powers to arrest any suspect in the country,” Prakash said.

Informed sources said raids were conducted on a tip off that the Islamic State sympathizers were planning bomb attacks on Republic Day (January 26) in the city or any other place in the state.  (IANS)