Man thought dead behind terror cell

Is Shafi Armar, alias Yusuf-al-Hindi, from Bhatkal, who was said to have been killed in a drone strike by the US in Syria in April, behind the alleged ISIS module, which was busted in Hyderabad on Friday by the National Investigation Agency and the local police

Though the NIA remained tightlipped about the handler and mentor of the five accused, who were arrested from the old city on Wednesday, according to sources, Shafi could be the man, who recruited and radicalised them online for executing terror strikes in Hyderabad during the holy month of Ramzan and the forthcoming Eid.

“It is either Shafi, or someone else using his name for ISIS online recruitment in India. He could be the ‘saheb’, who they (the accused) were referring to in their initial interrogation,” said an officer on condition of anonymity.

The NIA on Friday obtained custody of the five accused — Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani alias Ibbu, Habeeb Mohammed alias Sir, Mohammed Ilyas Yazdani, Abdullah Bin Ahmed Al Amoodi alias Fahad and Muzaffar Hussain Rizwan alias Rizwan. “Their custodial interrogation may throw some light on the module; their handler; their finances and the targets,” the officer added.

There were widespread reports in the media that Shafi was killed in a US drone strike, but none of the agencies had confirmed his death.

Shafi’s family had also dismissed the report of his death. His elder brother Abdul Khadir Sultan Armar was the blue-eyed boy of Abu Baqr al Baghdadi, who had anointed him and appointed him to head the militant jihadist group, Ansar al-Tawhid fi Bilad al Hind (AuT) to invite Indian Muslims to train at jihad camps in North Waziristan in Pakistan.