Financier of four Roorkee men with ISIS links held

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 5

The Delhi Police arrested a 28-year-old man with suspected links with the terrorist group, ISIS, from the Kashmere Gate ISBT before he could leave for Syria yesterday. The man has been identified as Mohsin Ibrahim Sayyed. The Delhi Police counter-terror unit, Special Cell, arrested him on Thursday night, on a tip-off from a central intelligence agency.

Sayyed was allegedly a financier and had given Rs 50,000 to four men with suspected ISIS links, who were arrested by the Delhi Police from Mangalore in Roorkee in Haridwar district last month.

A Delhi court today remanded him in police custody till February 10. The is the fifth man to be arrested during a probe against an ISIS module in India.

“During interrogation, he disclosed that he was about to leave for Syria,” said Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep.

Sayyed is a muezzin at Malad in Mumbai and had come to Delhi to meet an accomplice, according to the Special Cell. He was allegedly given Rs 1.50 lakh by a person in Lucknow and he was to deliver it to the accomplice here. The police said it has found Rs 85,000 from him.

Sayyed was allegedly a financier and had given Rs 50,000 to four men with suspected ISIS links arrested from Mangalore in Roorkee last month. The police said with the arrest of the four men, a terrorist plot to target Ardh Kumbh at Haridwar, trains headed there and some strategic locations in Delhi had come to light. The four men have been identified as Akhlaq ur-Rehman, Mohammed Osama, Mohammed Azim Shah and Mehroz.

“Sayyed was in contact with Akhlaq. We are checking his background,” Deep said. These four men allegedly have links with a former Indian Mujahideen militant, who went to fight for the ISIS, said the police.

“This militant is an important member of the Ansar-ut Tawhid fi Bilad al-Hind (AuT), which has pledged allegiance to the ISIS. He is believed to be fighting for the ISIS in Syria,” said another Special Cell officer.

The police are also tracking other members of the module. Sayyed was also close to one of the 14 suspected ISIS operatives arrested by the National Investigation Agency in a nationwide crackdown against the group last month.