NIA raids in Punjab, UP; man detained from Ludhiana for ISIS ‘link’

Tribune News Service
Ludhiana/New Delhi, January 17

The National Investigation Agency, accompanied by the Ludhiana police, raided the Madani Jama Masjid-cum-madrasa in Meharbaan village on Chandigarh road early this morning and detained the maulvi, Mohd Ovesh Pasha (23), who also teaches at the madrasa, for suspected links with an Islamic State (IS) module in Uttar Pradesh.    

  Besides Ludhiana, the NIA conducted fresh raids in Rampur, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Hapur and Amroha in western Uttar Pradesh in connection with the allegedly highly trained and radicalised ‘Harkat-Ul-Harb-e-Islam’ (War for the cause of Islam) module. “The agency is looking at possible angles of recruitment in Punjab,” said an official.

The team confiscated a dozen books on Muslim literature from the maulvi’s room as well as the madrasa register in Ludhiana. No weapon was found. 

Teacher Abdul Samad said 25 NIA personnel in a dozen vehicles arrived at the masjid at 2 am and asked the occupants to gather at one place. “As soon as Ovesh Pasha opened the gate, he was taken into custody. The NIA officials searched his room and took away a dozen books. They asked him if he had books on terrorism, but found nothing,” he said, adding there were four other occupants, including teachers Rashid and Raghib, cook Shammen and his son Tehseen, when the masjid was raided. 

Jamil Ahmed, president of the Madani Jama Masjid, said Pasha, a native of Rampur in UP, was appointed teacher six months ago after due verification. “We found nothing suspicious about him. A simple person, he didn’t even have an android phone. The mosque committee does not support anti-terrorist activities and if Pasha has any role, he should be punished.”

The mosque was built in 1988. Members of the mosque committee had recently organised a national-level function which was attended by spiritual gurus across the country. The madrasa attached with the mosque has five teachers (including Pasha) for 75 students, many of them from Bihar and UP. 

Meanwhile, NIA sources said the fresh searches followed leads obtained after interrogating the last two arrests in the case. The NIA on December 26 had arrested 10 persons, including alleged mastermind  Mohammad Sohail, after searches across 17 locations in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. Subsequently it arrested 21-year-old Naeem from Meerut on January 3 and 24-year-old Muhammad Absar from Hapur last week.  Absar was remanded to six days' custody. The case will come up for hearing on Friday. 

Sources say based on Naeem and Absar’s interrogation, the NIA now has more details on the visit of another co-accused Iftekhar Saqib to Bandipore, Rajouri and Tral in Jammu and Kashmir last year. Saqib reportedly met a  local cleric in Tral and an ‘overground’ worker affiliated with a militant organisation during his visit, seeking training and weapons for the group.