Five IS suspects sent to judicial custody

Hyderabad, June 30 (IANS) A special NIA court here on Thursday sent five Islamic State (IS) suspects allegedly plotting terror attacks in the city to judicial custody till July 14.

The five accused arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday were produced before the magistrate amid tight security at Nampally Criminal Court.

They were later shifted to Chanchalguda Central Jail.

The NIA also moved a petition seeking their police custody for further questioning. It will come up for hearing on Friday.

The five remanded in judicial custody are Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani, 30, Habeeb Mohammed, 32, Mohammed Ilyas Yazdani, 24, Abdullah Bin Ahmed Al Amoodi 30 Aand Muzaffar Hussain Rizwan, 29.

The NIA had detained 11 youth during raids at various places in the old quarters of Hyderabad on Wednesday.

An NIA official said the six suspects had been released Wednesday night but were called in again on Thursday to face fresh questions.

Earlier, the NIA quizzed the five accused for a second day on Thursday for their alleged role in plans to attack locations across Hyderabad, an official said.

All the suspects -- aged between 20 and 42 -- were allegedly plotting bomb attacks and indiscriminate firing at shopping malls and crowded places in Hyderabad, NIA sources had said.

The accused were allegedly planning to target places of worship, information technology corridors and police stations.

An airgun, two 9 mm pistols, nails, two airgun target boards and other material like chemicals used for making explosives and Improvised Explosive Devises (IEDs) were seized during the raids.

Cash totalling Rs 15 lakh, 40 mobile phones, 32 SIM cards, six laptops and seven pen drives and other digital items were also seized.

The agency said the accused were being guided by an online handler suspected to be based in Iraq/Syria.

The NIA booked the five for waging war against the government, conspiring to commit certain offences against the state and collecting arms and ammunition with the intention of waging war against the government.