‘Indian already under scanner motivated SIMI men for jihad in Afghanistan’

Authorities in Hyderabad are set to book Sultan Armar in a terrorism recruitment case for the first time in India. Sources said a large amount of electronic evidence in the form of chats and Facebook posts were available from the latest case to book Sultan Armar.

Armar is a leader of the Ansar ul Tawheed fi Bilad al Hind, an IM offshoot linked to the al-Qaeda which swore allegiance to the Islamic State and announced the death of what is possibly the first Indian-orgin jihadist, Anwer Bhatkal, in Afghanistan.

Sources said a Pakistani national identified as Kamran Sha and Sultan Armar masquerading as Zahid al Hindi motivated the men to travel to Afghanistan to take up jihad. The travel via Iran was to be funded by a Hyderabad youth Motassim Billa and Shoeb Khan had obtained a visa for Iran, sources said.

In September this year, police in Hyderabad had rescued four local engineering students from West Bengal while they were on their way to join the al-Qaeda. The youths had identified Armar as the man who chatted with them on Internet forums. No case was booked and no arrests were made by the Hyderabad police in the September episode on the grounds that the youths had been misled on the Internet and because their parents had helped the police find them.

Sources said in the current episode, a case has been booked because Armar was recruiting youths known to be associated with the proscribed SIMI and on account of availability of electronic evidence.

Sultan Armar and his brother Shafi Armar are also known to have been involved in the recruitment of three Rajasthan youths last year. The youths were later arrested by the Delhi special cell police for their association with IM.

According to NIA records of the chat conversation that were documented in a recent chargesheet Shafi Armar tells Yasin he has recruited youths from Rajasthan who are adherents of the Ahl-e-Hadith sect and motivated to take up jihad. He inquires about the whereabouts of the youths who were entrusted to IM founder Riyaz Bhatkal.

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