ISIS men went via Saudi, UAE

Hyderabad: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Intelligence agencies of the Telangana police have found that many people who went to Syria to fight for the ISIS had actually gone to Saudi Arabia or United Arab Emirates (UAE) instead of directly going to Syria from the city.

Police sources said the youths who went to Saudi Arabia, including recent cases, were radicalised by speeches or via online and “migrated” to Syria to join the ISIS.

“There are three routes to reach Syria. It is via Turkey, Sudan and Afghanistan. One of the accused in the pipe bomb conspiracy, Mufti Abdu Sami Qasmi of Uttar Pradesh, visited Hyderabad, advocated an Islamic caliphate and asked youths to go to Syria for participating in the worldwide jihad,” said a police official.

The prime accused, Yousuf Al Hind alias Shafi Armar, who is in Syria, used to hold video conferences with Nafees Khan and others in Hyderabad and motivate them to join the movement and carry out attacks under Junoo-Ul-Khilafa-Fil-Hind, an affiliate of ISIS.

Investigations found that Abu Anas, one of the accused belonging to Rajasthan and staying in Hyderabad, met Nafees Khan who helped two Hyderabadis to join ISIS fighters fighting in the Syrian civil war.

They discussed ways to join the ISIS and about routes to reach Syria. Nafees helped one Hyderabadi to go to Dubai and from there to Syria and another one to Singapore and then Syria from there.

Abu Anas helped one of them by transferring money to get a visa for Turkey.
“After reaching Turkey the Hyderabadi man transferred the money back to Abu Anas through the Western Union company. Abu Anas tried to get a Japanese visa from there to travel to Turkey,” said an official.