The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday arrested two persons - Abdul Rehman, alias Abdul Rahman, and Mujibur Rehman, alias Mujibur Rahman Altham Sahib, from Thanjavur district - after conducting searches at 10 locations in five districts in the Hizb-ut-Tahrir case.
The arrested persons are members of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an international pan-Islamist and fundamentalist organisation which is working to re-establish an Islamic caliphate and enforce the constitution written by Hizb-ut-Tahrir’s founder Taqi al-Din al-Nabhani, according to the agency.
The investigation by the NIA revealed that they had been conducting secret classes to radicalise the youth using extremist ideologies and projecting democracy, Constitution, law and the judiciary as anti-Islamic.
The trainees were taught that India was now Darul Kufr (land of non-believers), and it was their duty to transform it into Darul Islam by establishing an Islamic state in the country by waging violent jihad, a press release from the NIA said.
The searches were conducted in several places including those in Tiruchi, Thanjavur and Pudukottai districts. In Thanjavur district, the searches were conducted in Thanjavur town, Saliyamangalam and Manankorai village, police sources said.
The operation led to the seizure of digital devices such as mobile phones, laptops, SIM cards and memory cards, besides several incriminating documents including books and printouts containing the ideology of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Khilafa, Islamic State and the proposed Khilafa government and its funding structures.
In Erode, the agency searched two houses. A 10-member team from Kochi searched a house at Karuppanasamy Street in Periyar Nagar. The house is owned by Mohammed Isaq, 40, a mechanic. The searches began at 6 a.m. and ended at 10 a.m. The NIA officials seized a mobile phone and two pen drives.
Similarly, NIA officials from Chennai searched a house at Ashok Nagar near Poondurai, owned by Sharbuddin, 40, a photographer. The search continued till 11 a.m., but no seizure was made. The officials asked Sharbuddin to appear at the NIA office in Chennai on July 7.
In a joint operation in May, the NIA, the Intelligence Bureau and the Tamil Nadu police arrested six people in Chennai over their alleged links to Hizb-ut-Tahrir. Sunday’s searches were a follow-up to them, sources said.
