NIA arrests Islamic State operative from Bengaluru

NEW DELHI: The National Investigative Agency (NIA) on Monday said that it has arrested an Islamic State operative Abdul Rahman in connection with a case relating to Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP).
Rahman, 28, was working as an ophthalmologist at M S Ramaiah Medical College, Bangalore.
The development comes after Delhi police special cell arrested a Kashmiri couple - Jahanzaib Sami Wani and his wife Hina Bashir Beigh - from Okhla Vihar, Jamia Nagar in March this year.
According to the NIA, the couple was found to be having affiliations with ISKP, which is a banned terrorist organisation and is a part of ISIS, and were also found to be involved in "subversive and anti-national activities".
The NIA said that during interrogation, Rahman confessed that he was conspiring with accused Jahanzaib Sami and other Syria-based ISIS operatives on secure messaging platforms to further ISIS activities in India.
"He was in the process of developing a medical application for helping the injured ISIS cadres in the conflict-zones and a weaponry-related application for the benefit of ISIS fighters," the NIA said.
Significantly, Rahman had visited an ISIS medical camp in Syria in early 2014 for treatment of ISIS terrorists and stayed with the Islamic State operatives for 10 days and returned to India.
After arresting him, the NIA carried out searches at three premises belonging to him in Bengaluru with the assistance of Karnataka Police and seized digital devices, mobile phone, and a laptop containing incriminating material.