by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Asiya Andrabi
New Delhi : Asiya Andrabi, chief of the Kashmiri women’s separatist group “Dukhtaran-e-Milat” (Daughters of Faith), and two of her associates were sent to 10 day National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody on Friday.
After Andrabi,Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen were presented before a Special NIA Judge Poonam Bamba in connection with a sedition case filed against them, the court allowed the agency to quiz the three accused till July 16.
Andrabi and her two associates, who were in Srinagar Central Jail, were flown to Delhi by a team of NIA officers, police sources said.
Seeking custody of the three, the NIA told the court that their custodial interrogation was required to unearth the larger conspiracy as they had made several calls to terrorists and over ground workers active in Kashmir Valley.
The agency also told the court that during the course of investigation, several mobiles numbers, used by the members and associates of “Dukhtaran-e-Millat”, were collected and further analysed.
During analysis, it was found that they are in regular contact with their associates in Pakistan and are involved in anti-India activities, NIA informed the court.
“The present investigation has so far revealed that the accused persons, namely Asiya Andrabi, Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen, are found involved in conspiracy and acts to severely destabilise the sovereignty and integrity of India,” the agency said.
“By their activities on cyberspace, they are running a concerted campaign to solicit support of Pakistani establishment which inter-alia includes arranging support from terrorist entities in Pakistan,” the agency added.
Defence counsel Satish Tamta has opposed NIA’s plea seeking custody of the accused.
NIA has alleged that Andrabi and her associates are actively running terrorist organization “Dukhtaran-E-Millat” and using various media platforms to spread insurrectionary imputations and hateful speeches that endanger the integrity, security and sovereignty.
The accused are promoting enmity and hatred between different communities and have entered into a criminal conspiracy to wage war against the government of India, it said.
The agency has booked them under various sections of Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, wanted by Indian agencies on charges of inciting youths to take up terror activities, on Wednesday said he will not return to India unless he was assured fair prosecution.
“The news of my coming to India is totally baseless and false. I have no plans to come to India till I don’t feel safe from unfair prosecution. When I feel that the government will be just and fair, I will surely return to my homeland,” the founder of NGO Islamic Research Foundation said in a statement.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said it had no information about the return of the televangelist to India.
Naik is accused of spreading hatred by his provocative speeches, promoting enmity between communities and funding terrorists.
Rumour about Naik’s return to India spread after a section of Indian news channels, quoting sources in the Malaysian government, reported that the 51-year-old could be deported on Wednesday night.
Naik, who fled India on July 1, 2016 after terrorists in Bangladesh said they were inspired by his speeches, is currently living in Malaysia.
In November 2016, the NIA registered a case against the televangelist under the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. His Mumbai-based NGO Islamic Research Foundation has been declared an unlawful association.
The preacher came under the lens of security agencies after some terrorists, allegedly involved in the attack on a cafe in Dhaka in July 2016, reportedly claimed they were inspired by his speeches.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
Umer Siddiqui, Azharuddin Siddiqui, Hauser Ali, Mujibullah Ansari, and Imtitaz Ansari
Patna : An NIA court here on Friday awarded life imprisonment to all the five persons earlier convicted in the 2013 serial blasts that rocked Bodh Gaya’s Mahabodhi temple, a lawyer said.
Judge Manoj Kumar Sinha, presiding over the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court, had in May convicted Umer Siddiqui, Azharuddin Siddiqui, Hauser Ali, Mujibullah Ansari, and Imtitaz Ansari.
The life imprisonment is the maximum punishment that could be given in the case, NIA lawyer Lalan Kumar Sinha told reporters here.
The NIA chargesheet had said that the blasts on July 7, 2013, were carried out with the motive to kill domestic and foreign pilgrims, especially Buddhists, at the temple to create terror.
As many as 13 bombs were planted, out of which around 10 exploded. Three live bombs were defused later by security forces. Five persons, including two monks, were injured in the blasts.
The Bodh Gaya temple is a Unesco World Heritage site, where the Buddha attained enlightenment around 2,500 years ago.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Hyderabad : Eleven years after a powerful explosion killed nine people and injured over 50 during Friday prayers near the iconic Charminar here, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court here on Monday acquitted all five accused in the Makkah Masjid case.
A lawyer for one of the accused told reporters outside the Nampally criminal court complex that the court held that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges.
Hindu right-wing group Abhinav Bharat members Nabakumar Sarkar alias Swamy Aseemanand, Devender Gupta, Lokesh Sharma, Bharat Mohanlal Rateshwar alias Bharat Bhai and Rajender Chowdhary, who were charged by the NIA, were all acquitted.
The explosion ripped through the mosque on May 18, 2007. Two live IEDs were also recovered by police and defused. Later, five more people were killed in subsequent police firing on a crowd outside the mosque.
There were a total of eight accused in the case. One, Sunil Joshi, a RSS pracharak, was murdered during the course of investigation. Two other accused, Sandeep V. Dange and Ramchandra Kalsangra, both RSS activists, still elude the investigators.
Monday’s judgement was about five accused who were chargesheeted by NIA.
A total of three chargesheets were filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the NIA in the sensational case that took many twists and turns.
The city police, which initially took up investigation, blamed Harkatul Jihad Islami and rounded up about 100 Muslim youths. All those arrested and jailed were acquitted in 2008 and the subsequent investigations by the CBI in 2010 revealed that the blast was the handiwork of Hindu rightwing group Abhinav Bharat. The case was handed over to NIA on April 4, 2011.
The fact-finding committee of the National Minorities Commission found that the innocent youth were arrested on charges of terrorism and police kept them in illegal confinement and tortured them.
In 2012, the government of then united Andhra Pradesh paid a compensation of Rs.3 lakh each to 26 people who were acquitted and Rs 20,000 each to 50 people others were let off the police after questioning.
According to the chargesheet, the accused were “angered by terrorist attacks committed on Hindus and their temples” and conspired to “avenge” such acts with attacks on Muslim places of worship and places densely populated by Muslims.
The chargesheet also mentioned that Aseemanand made a confessional statement before a metropolitan magistrate in Delhi.
He had allegedly disclosed the conspiracy behind the bomb blasts in different places, including Makkah Masjid. Aseemanand allegedly retracted the statement later.
Aseemanand was first arrested by the CBI in 2010 but was granted conditional bail in 2017 in the case. He was earlier acquitted in Ajmer Dargah blast case and also got bail in the Samjhauta Express blast case of 2014.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
Kochi (Kerala) : An NIA court here on Saturday sentenced a woman from Bihar to seven years in jail in the first Islamic State (IS) case registered in Kerala.
The case is in connection with 15 persons from Kasargode district who travelled to Afghanistan to join the terror group in 2016.
Yasmin Mohammed Zahid was arrested in Delhi July 30, 2016, when she on her way to leave for Afghanistan with her child.
The case was first registered by the Kerala Police in Kasargode. It was later taken over by the National Investigation Agency.
The agency found evidence of the accused persons activities through their social media accounts.
—IANS
