‘Lectures by radical clerics brought terror suspects together’

Investigations revealed that the group held two meetings — in Bengaluru and in a forest area in Tumakuru — in the past three months.

January 24, 2016 12:13 am | Updated November 17, 2021 04:31 am IST - Bengaluru:

Organising bayan s (lectures) by radical Islamic clerics turned into a meeting ground for the >six terror suspects arrested from Karnataka. Two mosques in north Bengaluru turned the platform for many such bayan s, claimed NIA sources.

Asif Ali, a stone polisher arrested from J.J. Nagar, worked to organise bayans by Maulana Anzarshah Qasmi, a radical preacher from Banashankari, who was recently arrested for his links with Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).

It was at these bayan s that Syed Mujahid Hussein from Tumakuru, Mohammed Afzal from Saraipalya, and Abdul Ahad were believed to have met.

Hussein had also organised a bayan by Ansarshah Qasmi in Tumakuru in November 2015, sources claimed.

The group, however, grew distant from Ansarshah Qasmi, as he was opposed to Islamic State (IS), the suspects are said to have told interrogators.

They later organised a bayan by one Mufti Abdus Sami Qasmi, another allegedly pro-IS cleric from Uttar Pradesh, sources claimed. Mohammed Abdul Ahad turned into a rallying point for the group.

Investigations revealed that the group held two meetings — in Bengaluru and in a forest area in Tumakuru — in the past three months.

They also claimed that the meeting held in the city was attended by Muddabir Mushtaq Sheik from Mumbra, Mumbai and Mohammed Nafeez Khan from Hyderabad.

NIA claimed to have also recovered explosives from the two.

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