Syria plans after Kondhwa meeting

The city, known as a hub to attract the best of IT minds in the country, has also turned out to be a base for terror brainstorming for developing a unique communication software for the ISIS bypassing the easily trackable social media.
In a second such incident after Indian Mujahideen (IM) had managed to win over Yahoo! software engineer Mohammad Mansur Peerbhoy in the city in 2008, a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has revealed members of an organisation pledging allegiance to the ISIS held meetings in Kondhwa to develop software for secure communication among themselves.
Sleuths from the NIA and state anti-terrorism squad (ATS) believe that Pune has remained on terrorists' radar for recruiting cadres as well as targeting the city with bomb blasts. The NIA had arrested 18 people between December 9, 2015, and January 2016, following raids and searches in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Tumkur, Mumbai and Aurangabad, recovering explosives powder, pipes, analogue clock, soldering rod, match boxes, 900 ml hydrogen peroxide and hawala cash of Rs 2.5 lakh. The arrested persons were suspected to have links with the ISIS and held nine meetings, including one in Pune.
The NIA had submitted a supplementary charge sheet in Delhi against the arrested persons, including Mohammed Nafees Khan, Abu Anas. As per the NIA report submitted in the court, the accused had formed an organisation -Junood-Ul Khalifa-Fil-Hind -to establish Caliphate in India and pledging allegiance to the ISIS.They were at the behest of Yusuf-Al-Hindi, who is based in Syria and wanted to recruit Muslim youths for the ISIS in India. They had interacted with him on Internet and received funds through hawala channels. They had allegedly visited isolated and forested region of Vikarabad and Narsapur in Telangana to identify a suitable place for hideout and training of its members.
The report also states that the accused persons held meeting in different cities for recruitment, training, procuring weapons, ammunitions and assigning responsibilities to members of the Junood-Ul Khalifa-Fil-Hind.
Out of nine, the eighth meeting was held in Pune on December 17-18 last year in which Nafees Khan and Anas had participated, besides three others. The meeting was held at the residence of Anas's friend in Kondhwa. He knew the persons as they were associated with Tablighi Jamaat (Islamic Revivalist Movement). “The motive of the meeting was to recruit more cadres for Khilafat, to raise and develop software for secure communication among the members of JunoodUl Khalifa-Fil-Hind,“ the NIA charge sheet states.
The NIA investigation also mentioned, “When Anas reached the house of his friend there were already two persons present there.They had discussions about Islam, jihad and ISIS.The discussion was mainly on different routes to be taken to reach Syria. Anas and Nafees motivated others to join the ISIS. Anas also informed them about `signal' chat application as other such applications and social media sites were easily monitored by the security agencies. Anas and Nafees also motivated others to give zakat (donation) to their organisation. Subsequently, two persons gave them Rs 20,000. After a few days, this amount was transferred to one of the accounts of Anas. Anas had also planned to travel to Syria and intended to take a loan of Rs 2 lakh from a commercial bank.“
Officials from Pune city police and the ATS said they were neither part of the investigation nor they have been informed by the NIA about the meeting in Kondhwa. A senior NIA official based in Delhi told Mirror, “We submitted the supplementary charge sheet. There is nothing more to share at this stage.“