Basith chargesheeted by NIA for ‘links’ with IS

The Hyderabad-based engineering dropout, Abdullah Basith, who was arrested for his alleged links with the Islamic State (IS) terrorists, was crucial in preparing Voice of Hind, a magazine used by IS terrorists to incite people of different communities, in support of their activities, and that too while being in jail.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the case of Islamic State Khorasan Province, gave these details in the NIA Special Court at Delhi, in its charge-sheet.

The premier investigation agency on Wednesday filed a charge-sheet against Abdullah Basith,

26, and Jahanzaib Sami Wani, 36, his wife Hina Bashir Beigh, 39, both from Srinagar, Sadiya Anwar Shaikh, 20, and Nabeel Siddick Khatri,

27, of Pune, for their alleged affiliation with ISIS, and for promoting enmity among different religious communities and for committing subversive activities.

In 2018, the NIA arrested Abdullah Basith, who used aliases Khattab Bhai, Khattab Khurasani, and Bin Fulan, of Chandrayangutta, in the Abu Dhabi module case.

Further, he was lodged at Tihar jail, where he gained access to a smartphone, which he used to keep in touch with Huzaifa-al-Bakistani, an ISIS handler.

The Delhi Police Special Cell initially registered the case in March this year, when it arrested Jahanzaib and Hina, from a rented house in Okha Vihar in Delhi, and then the case was taken up by NIA. During their investigation, the role of Bastih surfaced again.

The probe revealed that Jahanzaib, an Engineering graduate, was radicalised by reading about IS on the internet.