Andrabi angle being probed, separatist leader says no ISIS link

Srinagar/Hyderabad, Dec 30: Police in Jammu and Kashmir and Telangana are investigating claims by three arrested youths from Hyderabad that they were planning to meet separatist leader Asiya Andrabi to join jihadi terror groups even as she dismissed as "fabricated" allegations that she had any links with Islamic State.

"We are in touch with the Telangana police. All the agencies are investigating. It is a serious case so we are on the job," Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh told reporters in Jammu.

Singh was asked about claims by the three youths who were arrested on December 27 following their detention by police last week from Nagpur airport before they were to leave for Srinagar to meet Andrabi, chief of radical outfit Dukhtaran-e- Millat.

Telangana Director General of Police Anurag Sharma said they were also investigating "reports" claiming Andrabi had visited Telangana earlier. "It is learnt that she may have visited, but there is no confirmation (on it) as such.

We are trying to investigate on that part. Once we investigate, then only something can be said," Sharma said addressing an annual press conference in Hyderabad.

The three cousins - Mohd Abdulla Basith, Maaz Hasan Farooq and Syed Omer Farooq Hussaini - were arrested on Saturday for allegedly planning to join jihadi terror groups, months after they were put under watch for being influenced by online ISIS propaganda.

Police yesterday said that the three youths aspired to meet Andrabi, using the name of their late uncle, former chief of Students Islamic Movement of India Syed Salahuddin. Andrabi today dismissed allegations that she had any connection with Islamic State as a "concocted story".

"This is a concocted story and has nothing to do with me," Andrabi told PTI in Srinagar. She said there was no connection between the separatists of Kashmir and the international terror group Islamic State.

"We do not have any connections with any other group outside the state," she added. Meanwhile, BJP legislators in Jammu and Kashmir demanded that Public Safety Act (PSA) be invoked against Andrabi and she be sent to jail on charges of sedition.

"Andrabi should be arrested and send to jail after slapping PSA for her continued anti-Indian activities", BJP MLA from Nowshera, Ravinder Raina, told reporters.

PTI