‘GERMAN WOMAN RAN TELEGRAM GROUP OF IS SYMPATHISERS’

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

She is said to have motivated IS suspect Amzad Khan, a 37-yearold Indian who was arrested by Saudi Arabian police last September and deported this April.

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

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

Telegram is an encrypted messaging service similar to social media applications such as WhatsApp and has emerged as a favourite online tool used by 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”, an NIA official said.

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 of Bengal. Arrested last year, he is the lone Indian to be interrogated by the FBI of the US for links with the terrorist outfit.