AP cops take Hyderabad woman into custody over AQIS links
A 35-year-old woman from Hyderabad’s Chanchalguda was taken into custody by Andhra Pradesh Police for alleged links with AQIS. Investigators say she was in contact with a terror suspect arrested earlier in Vijayawada during a crackdown on extremist networks
Hyderabad: The Counter Intelligence team of AP Police along with their Vijayawada counterparts on Wednesday took into custody a woman from Chanchalguda for alleged links with Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).
The woman identified as Sayeeda Begum (35) lives with her six-year-old son and parents at Chanchalguda after her husband passed away. In the early hours of Wednesday, a police team from Andhra Pradesh reached her house located near Zaikha Hotel on Chanchalguda road and took her into custody.
According to the AP Police, she was in contact with one of the suspects linked to ISIS and Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) terror groups headed by Mohammed Rahmathullah Sharif, who was recently arrested by the AP Police. Rahmathullah, along with Mohammad Danish of Bhavanipuram, Vijayawada, and Mirza Sohail Baig of Mahanthipuram, Vijayawada, were arrested and remanded.
During interrogation, Rahmathullah Sharif revealed that he was in touch with around 15 persons including Sayeeda for over a year. Based on the information, the AP Police reached the city and took the woman into custody.
Rahmathullah told the interrogators that he came in contact with a person Al-Hakim Shukoor through social media, and the latter asked him to take up Jihad in India and introduced him to other members of the group including one Dilkash from Bihar and Sayeeda from Hyderabad, who were reportedly affiliated to the AQIS. The police seized some electronic devices from Sayeeda’s house during searches.
Following the raid on the house, the local police also questioned the family members of the woman and collected information about her activities. It is learnt that her husband passed away a few years ago and her mother works as a sweeper at a private institution. The woman often remained hooked to her mobile phone till late in the night but the family did not suspect she might be in touch with someone linked to terrorist organisations, sources close to the family said.
The AP Police also picked up a man from Bengaluru and another from Maharashtra in connection with the case.
The Pakistan ISI-backed terror groups are reportedly using Mohammed Shahid Faisal, a Bengaluru-based engineer believed to be in Pakistan, for recruitment of people to execute its plans. Faisal is also a relative of Farhatullah Ghouri, a Hyderabad man involved in terror cases, who is absconding and suspected to be in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan.