Two more with ISIS links held from Hyderabad, Maha

New Delhi: Two more persons with suspected links to the recently busted terror module owing allegiance to Islamic State have been detained and are likely to be handed over to the National Investigation Agency soon.

According to sources, the security agencies, continuing with its operations against the group, picked up a youth from Hyderabad and another person from Maharashtra.

The two will be handed over to the NIA on Wednesday, sources added. The two, whose names have been withheld, have already been questioned by a joint team of intelligence agencies.

The NIA has so far arrested 14 people belonging to Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind, or Army of the Caliph of India, the Indian wing of ISIS, who were picked up from various parts of the country for allegedly planning to carry out terror strikes at important installations.

The NIA claimed that the accused were regularly in touch with active ISIS members in Syria over “Skype”, “Signal” and “Trillion” on the Internet and were also using social networking sites to motivate young men to join the ISIS.

Those arrested earlier included Mudabbir Mushtaq Shaikh, the self-styled “ameer” of the group. He was the man behind raising the outfit after earlier attempts by the global terror organisation to set up its base in the subcontinent failed, sources said.

Shaikh, who assumed the title “ameer”, supposedly under instructions from ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi himself, was active on some social networking sites. Sources said his custodial interrogation may help the security agencies unravel the ISIS’ plans.

The NIA had registered a case in 2015 after “credible information” was received that the ISIS was engaged in radicalising Indian youth and motivating them to join the terrorist organisation.