German woman running IS group baffles NIA

NEW DELHI: A German suspect known by her vague Telegram group name Nau Lee is said to be the pivot of a multinational set of Islamic State sympathisers, including Indians.

She allegedly motivated IS suspect Amzad Khan, a 37-yearold from Rajasthan’s Ratangarh who was arrested by Saudi Arabian police last September on the charge of having links with the global terrorist outfit. He was deported this April.

Son of a railway technician, Khan was working in a grocery store in Saudi Arabia after losing his job with a construction firm that hired him in 2014.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), the country’s anti-terrorism organisation, is verifying his statement about the “girl from Germany” who he said was the admin or controller of the Telegram group.

Close to 20 people from nations as diverse as the Maldives, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany and India were members of the group, called Nau Lee, agency officials said.

Telegram is an encrypted messaging service similar to social media applications such as WhatsApp and is a popular online tool among IS operatives and sympathisers.

The NIA could approach lawenforcement agencies of countries mentioned in the group. But Khan’s “claims have to be ascertained before our investigators can decide an action plan”, said an official of the Indian agency.

The members followed a common ideology and shared IS-related news and posts within the group, according to the NIA interrogation report, which is available with Hindustan Times.

Khan said in his statement that he was an active Twitter user and operated his handle with an alias, Ayan Khan Salafi. He began following around “August or September” 2015 a person from the Maldives, who added him to the Telegram group. Khan couldn’t remember his name now. The Telegram address got him in touch with suspected IS operative Mohammad Masiuddin alias Musa.