IS suspect under cops lens

Hyderabad: A young girl hailing from Kenya and living in Hyderabad, who was allegedly in touch with the arrested executive of Indian Oil Corporation, has been kept under surveillance for her suspected links with IS.

The girl in her mid-20s hails from Kenya has come to Hyderabad to study. The girl was reportedly radicalised online and deeply influenced by the activities of IS.

The girl was in regular touch with the IS sympathiser who was arrested by the Rajasthan ATS on Thursday.

Mohd Sirazudin, the arrested IOC executive, had formed closed groups of IS sympathisers, including the Hyderabadi girl and two youths from Maharashtra, in Facebook and WhatsApp and was allegedly spreading IS activities online and trying to recruit Indian youths in the Middle-East terrorist group.

"Sirazudin was taken into custody as he was on the verge of turning into a 'lone wolf'," an official said. A 'lone wolf' terrorist is one who indulges in violence in support of some group, movement or ideology but works alone, outside of any command structure and without material assistance from any group.

The Special Operation Group (SOG) and ATS of Rajasthan Police arrested Sirazudin, the marketing manager of IOC, in Jaipur on Thursday. Sirazudin, who hails from Gulbarga in Karnataka, was accused of active in flaring up and encouraging Muslim youths for joining ISIS activities, police said. A number of copies of IS' online magazine ‘Dabik’, pictures and video were recovered from him.

However, the intelligence officials here confirmed that the girl from Hyderabad does not have any links with the arrested IS sympathizer who is a student living in Tolichowki.

“She is a Facebook friend of the arrested and chats casually with him sometimes. However, she will be counselled and warned,” the officials said.