At least one person from the five youths detained in Hyderabad by the NIA on Wednesday, was in direct touch with a top leader of the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and was taking instructions from him, reports suggest.

The New Indian Express reported:

It was on the instructions from the IS leaders that the accused were planning an attack in the next few days. Officials do not rule out the possibility of the accused planning to target some top politician, particularly from the BJP.

“He was in constant touch with the IS leader in Syria over internet. We had been tracking him for quite some time now. They conducted firing practice at isolated places in Bandlaguda and Narsapur on the outskirts of Hyderabad over the last seven months. They were using telescopes on their guns. They were planning to target a temple or a politician,” TNIE quotes sources associated with the interrogation as saying.

Meanwhile, shocked family members of the youths vouched for the innocence of the detained people.

"You can come and ask anybody in the neighbourhood. They have not even quarrelled with anyone...We don't understand what is happening. The boys are not aggressive at all," one relative told the Times of India.

Speaking to TOI, the uncle of the one of the youths said "The NIA officials barged in and created an atmosphere of fear. They made all members of the family stand, and recorded videos. They picked him up after they watched him return (from the mosque). We are sure of his innocence."