Bengaluru Doctor Arrested, NIA Says He Was Developing App for ISIS

28-year-old Abdur Rahman, who was arrested, is a junior resident doctor at Bengaluru’s MS Ramaiah Medical College.

Image used for representational purposes. 

(Photo: Lijumol Joseph/ The Quint)

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested a 28-year-old junior resident doctor in the ophthalmology department at Bengaluru's MS Ramaiah Medical College late on Monday, 17 August, for his alleged link to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror outfit.

According to NIA, Abdur Rahman, a resident of Bengaluru's Basavanagudi, allegedly confessed during the interrogation that he was involved in activities related to the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) and other ISIS operatives in Syria. Abdur Rahman was allegedly developing a medical application to help ISIS operatives in conflict zones and another weapons-related app for ISIS fighters, NIA said.

Abdur Rahman's arrest is connected to the case registered by the Delhi Police Special Cell in March this year. The DPSC had arrested a Kashmiri couple – Jahanzaib Sami Wani and his wife Hina Bashir Beigh – from Okhla Vihar in Delhi's Jamia Nagar in March in connection with the case. The couple was allegedly affiliated to ISKP, a banned terrorist organisation and a part of ISIS. The NIA claimed that the couple were involved in subversive and ‘anti-national’ activities.

The NIA said that the couple was in touch with Abdullah Basith, another accused currently in Tihar jail for his alleged involvement in ISIS Abu Dhabi module case.

After the couple's arrest, the case was handed over to the NIA and in July this year, the agency arrested Sadiya Anwar Sheikh and Nabeel Siddick Khatri, both residents of Pune, for their alleged links to ISKP. The duo was accused of being part of a conspiracy to further the activities of ISIS and ISPK. The NIA said that they aimed at carrying out subversive activities in the "garb of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests".

Upon Abdur Rahman's arrest, the NIA allegedly interrogated him at an undisclosed location in Bengaluru.

“Upon interrogation, it is learnt that he had visited an ISIS medical camp in Syria in early 2014 for treatment of ISIS terrorists, and stayed with Islamic State operatives for 10 days and returned to India,” the NIA said in a statement.

The NIA also conducted search and seizure operations at three places belonging to Abdur Rahman upon his arrest, and seized digital devices, a mobile phone and a laptop, which the NIA claims contain incriminating materials.

"The arrested accused will be produced before the NIA special court at New Delhi and NIA remand will be sought for his custodial interrogation," the NIA statement said.

(This story was first published in The News Minute and has been republished with permission.)