The National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out raids in Telangana's Hyderabad and Maharashtra's Wardha early morning in connection with an Islamic State module on Saturday. A senior official connected to the 2016 Islamic State module case probe told news agency IANS, "The raids are on at three places in Hyderabad and one place in Wardha since early morning."
In Hyderabad, the raids were carried out in Shaheen Nagar and Kings Colony in Mailardevpally.
The sleuths picked up one person identified as Taha from Kings Colony, Mailardevpally for questioning. Taha is reportedly a native of Maharashtra who had being residing Hyderabad for the past few years. He shifted to an apartment along with his wife in Kings Colony four months ago. He is suspected to have links with Hyderabad ISIS module that was busted in 2016.
The officials searched his residence and confiscated suitcases belonging to Taha for examination. After raiding the residence, the NIA officials also quizzed his wife. She was also picked up, along with her husband. However it's unclear if she is being questioned.
One of Taha's neighbors told TNM that the couple was quiet, kept to themselves, and never interacted with them. "They never interacted with us. He would be at his home, would go out to pray and come back. He has a wife. We are also Muslims but they wouldn't talk to us, we thought they were rich and arrogant," the neighbor said.
Another resident in the apartment said, "When I was going for namaz at around 4-5 am, I saw the officials in plain clothes entering the building. They asked us not to come out, or inform about them to anybody else."
Earlier in 2016, the NIA had carried out similar raids in Moghulpura, Chandrayangutta, Mir Chowk and Bhavaninagar in Hyderabad and arrested six people, and a few more were taken for questioning. They were accused of being ISIS sympathisers.
NIA claimed that the group wanted to carry out strikes in Hyderabad and was also planning to incite riots by throwing beef in temples in the city. The investigating agency had also claimed that the group was busted before they could access weapons and fabricate Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).