NIA recovers fresh ammo during raids on arrested IS operatives

HYDERABAD: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials in the wee hours of Tuesday conducted raids yet again on the residences of the arrested alleged Islamic State (IS) operatives in various parts of Old City and seized fresh ammunition. The NIA officials also said that during the investigation they came to know that the members of the module have been using assumed names, to avoid getting their identity disclosed.
Since it is a day before Ramzan, to avoid any protests and backlash from locals, the NIA choose early morning to conduct surprise raids to begin with on the Talabkatta residence of Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani, the Amir of Hyderabad IS module and recovered a computer and other gadgets which was used for online communication.

This was followed by a second raid in Barkas at the residence of Habeeb and recovered 17 live rounds of 9 mm, which was hid in his residence. ``During the raid at ME-Seva kendra (Shalimar online seva) in Bhavani Nagar, which is being run by Nizamuddin, brother in law of Ibrahim, a computer system and scanner were seized. As per the revelations of Ibrahim's brother Illiyas, he used the same for scanning the pledge for online communicition with their handler,'' NIA officials said in a press note.

However, the officials did not specify what the pledge is all about but it is learnt that it is about their willingness to work for IS. According to investigating agency, the assumed names used by the accused are Rizwan as `Abu Hasan', Ibrahim Yazdani as ``Abu Abdur Rehman'', Ilyas Yazdani as ``Abu Mansoor'', Habeeb Mohammed as ``Abu Shaiba'', Fahad as ``Abu Haleema''.

The NIA came out with specific details about the portpolios of the each operative. Ibrahim as ``Raa bit''- the communication incharge, Iliyas Yazdani- religious head, Rizwan as the ``Mahasib''- the account keeper, Habeeb Mohammed as ``Askari''- Armed matters incharge. As of now all the five are in the custody of NIA and they will be in their custody till June 12.