NIA Raids Part 1: IS-Module or Witch Hunting?

It was 4:30 am on December 26 when men and women from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) knocked on the door of the home of Rashid Zafar Raq (24) in Jaffarbad, a Muslim-dominated locality in North-East Delhi. When the door was opened, at least 15 people barged into his house.

They asked for Raq, interrogated him for a few minutes, and then took him into custody, assuring the family that he will be released after questioning. His entire house was searched, even the electric meter and its safety box and a laptop, mobile phones belonging to all members of family and cash were seized.

As the day progressed, the family came to know through TV news channels that he has been arrested on charges of allegedly being part of the Harkat-ul-Harb-e-Islam, a group inspired by the Islamic State (IS) that was allegedly planning to bomb key targets across the country.

The NIA arrested 10 persons on December 26, and claimed to have busted the alleged IS-inspired module, which – the agency says – was attempting to carry out attacks in and around the national capital. NIA Inspector General Alok Mittal later told the media that the accused had mobilised funds, ammunition, and had procured explosive material to prepare improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and bombs.

“Zafar has no criminal record. He is a religious person, and is associated with Tablighi Jamaat (a global non-political group for spreading faith), and has recently gone for a chilla (40 continuous days a year). Apart from performing prayers five times a day, he runs a garment shop. He has no other association. His only crime is he is a practicing Muslim, and has long beard,” his visibly upset uncle Afzal Ahmad told Newsclick.

Zafar’s family said two others who have been arrested – Zaid Malik (22) and Anas Yunus (20) – were his friends because they were also associated with Tablighi Jamaat and live in the same locality.

The house of Zaid Malik – who helps his father run his air cooler shop – was too raided by NIA officials at around 4.30 am. Following a search, the officials took away the mobile phone and SIM cards of all the family members. Zaid and his brother Zubair Malik – an undergraduate in the Delhi University – were arrested.

“The NIA officers also took away some books belonging to both brothers,” said a relative who asked to remain anonymous.

The family members of the 10 alleged terror suspects are not yet reconciled with the fact that the NIA raids were targeted to unearth the IS (Islamic State) terror module, claiming that the youth were not able to pronounce the name of the alleged terror outfit.

They are not able to piece together NIA claims that led to the arrests in Delhi and Hapur, Meerut and Amroha in Uttar Pradesh as, they said, the material recovered from their residences – such as inverters, batteries, cellular phones and cash amounts – is usually found everywhere.

Among the 10 arrested is Mufti Mohammad Sohail Ahmad (35), who used to teach Quran in Amroha district of Uttar Pradesh. The NIA claims that he was the head of the alleged IS-module. His elderly father Hafeez Ahmad (65), who has been running an inverter repair shop in Jaffarabad for the past 40 years, said that the NIA officers found inverter batteries and circuits ‘suspicious’, and seized them from their residence.

“Forget about batteries and circuits, they even found my diary – which had drawings of inverters. For them, suspicious,” said Ahmad.

Asked what was the drawing all about, he said, “Every electric circuit has a diagram to understand its components we install in an inverter. They had also confiscated the diary, but gave back to me after I requested them to return,” he said.

Among other seizures by the NIA officials were also the water pipes. “They have given us receipt of the seizures that they made – such as inverter circuits, batteries, water pipes and mobile phones of the entire family members – after we requested them for the same. Even they have given us in writing that they found nothing suspicious in my house,” said Ahmad.

When asked how the raid was conducted, Ahmad said they (the NIA officers) entered his house at around 4-4.30 am, and virtually ransacked the house during the search. “They did not show us any court order or warrant. We were also not informed about the reason behind the raid. We could not dare to ask and interrupt, as they had weapons,” he said.

Asked about his son, Ahmad said that Sohail shifted to Amroha from Jaffrabad two months ago. “He was teaching Quran in a local madrasa. He was doing the same here as well. He shifted to Amroha because our entire family is there, including my brothers,” he said.

Sohail was arrested from Amroha, and his father alleged that he was made to sign blank papers by the officers.

Asked how he knew about the same, Ahmad said he was informed about it by the family members who were present at the time when he was being taken into custody.

Mohammad Azam (30) – who was arrested by the NIA along with four others from Jaffrabad – runs a medical shop (New Siddiqui Medicos) near Haji Ekram Chowk at Chouhan Banger. His father who is also Hafeez Ahmad (Sohail father’s name is also the same), lives in another building opposite Azam’s house.

He said that the officers came to Azam’s house at around 5 am, and began searching everything.

“Azam’s wife and his five-year-old daughter were sleeping when the officers reached his home. They began searching the house. The mother-daughter duo woke up because of the sudden commotion. They were scared and started crying. She (Azam’s wife) called me, and we went there. After searching Azam’s house, they went to his medical shop, and searched that as well. They seized some Urdu books lying there. They took Azam into custody, and left with his and his wife’s mobile phones,” he told Newsclick.

His father told Newsclick that Azam quit studies after class 12 to open a garment shop, which he shut down four years ago, and opened a medical shop. He got married five years back. “He used to spend majority of the time at home with his family once the shop was closed. He is not much talkative, and had no other engagement. It is being alleged that he was associated with ISIS, but if you ask him to pronounce it (the abbreviation), he won’t be able to do it,” said the father.

Asked about his relations with others who have been arrested, Basheer said, “Azam only knows Sohail, as we live close by, and Azam runs a medical shop. Azam had spoken to him over the phone a few times.”

Asked about the questions the officers were asking Azam, the father said they were repeatedly about his visits to Amroha. “We have an extended family in Amroha, and we often keep visiting them.

The NIA officers took Azam along with them but – as his family alleged – they were not informed about his arrest. “The local police informed us around midnight on Wednesday (January 26) that Azam has been arrested,” said the father.

Anas Yunus (24) – a civil engineering student at Amity University in Noida – was interrogated at length for hours in presence of his relatives at his home in Jaffarabad. After the gates of his three-storeyed house opened after 12 hours at around 5.30 pm, he, with his face covered with muffler, was shoved into a police van parked outside, and the vehicle sped away.

The agency has accused him of being “instrumental in procuring electrical items, alarm clocks, batteries, etc. in furtherance of their terror conspiracy”.

His house remained locked from inside till December 27 evening, and the family refused to talk to anyone.

Majority of neighbours refused to make any comment. However, two of his neighbours told Newsclick on strict condition of anonymity that the young boy is being framed by the agency. “He was soft-spoken and a religious person. He can never be associated with any terror group,” they said.

Another questioned the seizures made from the residence of Anas. “We saw the officers taking away PoP (Plaster of Paris) bags from his house,” he claimed.

Mohammad Yunus, the father of the engineering student, has a business of fancy plaster designs, and works with building contractors in the city.

‘Firecrackers’ as Bombs, ‘Tractor Trolley’ as Rocket Launcher for NIA?

After the NIA went to the media with the alleged explosives and country-made pistols and rocket launcher it claims to have recovered from the 10 men, the investigating agency faced widespread mocking on the social media platforms.

People, on various social media platforms, have ridiculed the federal agency for presenting firecrackers and A4 sized printouts with ISIS logo to justify its raids in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

The mother of Saeed and Raees – both brothers arrested from Uttar Pradesh – sensationally alleged that the NIA officials had seized the family’s hydraulic tractor trolley to claim that they had recovered a rocket launcher.

“Wo tractor trolley me use hone wale pressure nozzles ko rocket launcher bata ke le gaye aur hamare beton ko giraftaar kar liya (They took the pressure nozzle of our tractor trolley by calling it a rocket launcher. They also arrested my sons.),” she has been quoted in a tweet by TV journalist Prashant Kumar, who also wrote, “So, after sutli bomb, it’s tractor trolley now. Umm….”

Nafees Ahmed, a relative of the two, can be seen in a video showing a nozzle used in the tractor trolley while dumping the goods on the ground.

The agency was later ridiculed for recovering what appeared to be firecrackers to justify its raids.