HYDERABAD: Hyderabad-based Abdullah Basith, arrested by the National Investigation Agency in August last year for his alleged links with ISIS terror modules, was in regular touch with Matin Azizi-Yarand, a US teen who was arrested by the FBI in May 2018, the investigators found.
Matin was accused of planning to carry out a mass shooting at a suburban Dallas mall. Basith was earlier arrested by Telangana police in 2015, from Nagpur airport. But after his release he created an Instagram group in which ISIS sympathisers from Australia, US and Khorasan were members. After his arrest and subsequent release on bail, Basith started associating himself with alleged ISIS activities through Instagram and other social media platforms.
Basith was in constant touch with Matin Aziz, who regularly posted articles related to ISIS. Basith created an Instagram group ‘Musaib bhai’, using which he searched for pro-ISIS groups. Investigations also revealed that Basith used at least five mobile phones to dodge security agencies, from the time he was released on bail and till he was arrested in August 2018 by NIA. He threw the mobile which he used to contact his family members, in the garbage box of a Delhi bound train, when he ran away from home.
He then used another phone procured to him by one of his associates Syed Omer Farooq, but burnt the device after knowing that his associates in Delhi were arrested. A few weeks before the arrest, he informed his handlers that he was leaving home ‘to wage violent jihad’ and went to Delhi.
In July 2018, Basith’s handler Huzaifa Bakistani gave one telegram id “C” of Delhi and directed him to deposit Rs 50,000 to procure weapons. Basith deposited Rs 49,000 and informed Hufaiza, who in turn directed three Delhi boys to collect the weapon from “C” and handover to Basith. But in the process, the Delhi boys were nabbed, due to which Basith returned home and deactivated all his social media accounts and burnt the mobile which he was using to contact his handlers.
Basith is currently lodged in Tihar Jail in Delhi.
Social media propaganda
Basith had created an Instagram account called ‘Musaib bhai’, using which he searched for pro-ISIS groups in the platform. It was also revealed that Basith used at least five mobile phones to dodge security agencies