ISIS case: Delhi court sends 10 arrested persons to 12-day NIA custody

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Thursday sent 10 people arrested in the ISIS case to 12-day NIA custody.
They were arrested Wednesday on the suspicion of being members of an ISIS-inspired group who were planning suicide attacks and serial blasts, targeting politicians as also government installations, in Delhi and other parts of north India.
They were produced amidst tight security and with covered faces before Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Pandey who ordered in-camera proceedings in the case.
NIA had sought 15-day custodial interrogation of the accused who were arrested from various parts of the national capital and Uttar Pradesh.
Those arrested in the case are: Mufti Mohammed Suhail alias Hazrath (29), Anas Yunus (24), Rashid Zafar Raq alias Zafar (23), Saeed alias Sayeed (28), Saeed's brother Raees Ahmad, Zubair Malik (20), Zubair's brother Zaid (22), Saqib Iftekar (26), Mohammed Irshad (in late 20s) and Mohammed Azam (35).
They were arrested after NIA carried out searches, in coordination with Special cell of Delhi Police and Anti-Terrorism Squad of Uttar Pradesh Police, at six places in Jafrabad, Seelampur in Delhi, and 11 places in Uttar Pradesh - six in Amroha, two in Lucknow, two in Hapur and two in Meerut.
The searches and the arrests, including of a 'mufti' from Amroha, comes a month before Republic Day celebrations on January 26.
According to NIA, a locally-made rocket launcher, material for suicide vests and 112 alarm clocks to be used as timers were recovered from the searches.
The probe agency had initially rounded up 16 persons of the group 'Harkat ul Harb e Islam', which loosely translates into war for the cause of Islam.
Of the 16 detained, 10 were later arrested - five from Amroha, in UP and five from Seelampur and Jafrabad localities in north-east Delhi, the agency had said.
Those arrested include the alleged mastermind, 29-year-old Suhail, a 'mufti', or a Muslim legal expert empowered to give rulings on religious matters, from Amroha in western Uttar Pradesh, an engineering student in a private university in Noida and a third year graduation student in humanities in a university in Delhi as well as two welders, NIA had said on Wednesday.