Mubasshir Mushtaq
23 January 2016•Update: 23 January 2016
MUMBAI, India
The Indian authorities on Saturday arrested 13 suspected Daesh sympathizers as part of a nationwide counter-terrorism operation carried out in the run-up to the country’s Republic Day, which will be celebrated on Tuesday.
According to India’s Federal Home Ministry, the counter-terrorism campaign represents the country’s largest-ever anti-Daesh operation.
The 13 suspects were detained in 12 locations in six different cities early Friday morning.
They were formally arrested on Saturday after being interrogated by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA).
According to the authorities, the accused were allegedly "radicalized online" and had been planning to carry out terrorist attacks targeting Republic Day celebrations.
The NIA had recovered "explosive materials" and "jihadi literature" in the suspects’ possession, local Indian media has reported.
Authorities say the suspects belonged to a group called "Junud-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind" ("Soldiers of the Caliphate of India"), members of which, they say, had been under police surveillance for the past six months.
Investigators believe the group has sworn allegiance to the Syria-based Daesh militant group.
Mudabbir Sheikh, the group’s 33-year-old alleged leader, was arrested in Mumbai’s Muslim-majority Mumbra suburb on Friday, a senior police officer in Maharashtra State’s anti-terrorism squad told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity.
One of those detained for alleged Daesh sympathies, 24-year-old Abu Anas, is an information-security analyst from Hyderabad, whose arrest has reportedly sent shockwaves through the city’s IT industry.
The arrest of the 13 suspected Daesh sympathizers comes only days after the Indian authorities arrested five alleged Al-Qaeda operatives.
In November of 2014, India made its first Daesh-related arrest when Arif Majeed, a Muslim youth from Mumbai’s Kalyan suburb returned to the country after spending four months in Syria fighting for Daesh.
Majeed, along with three other youths, had allegedly joined the militant organization after contacting other group members online. He is still in police custody.
One month after Majeed’s arrest in 2014, Indian authorities arrested Mehdi Masroor Biswas in the city of Bangalore for allegedly running a Twitter account used to propagate Daesh ideology.
