National Investigating Agency (NIA) on Thursday, arrested Ziyavudeen Baqavi, the main recruiter of Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT) terrorist group and offshoot of ISIS.
“Today (24.02.2022), NIA arrested the main recruiter of Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT), namely, Ziyavudeen Baqavi, r/o Kumbakonam Taluk, Tamil Nadu in RC-08/2021/NIA/DLI,” the NIA said in a statement.
This group radicalises youths to establish an Islamic State or Caliphate and enforce the constitution written by radical Islamic preacher Taqi al-Din al-Nabhani, the NIA official said.
The case, which was originally lodged in Madurai, was re-registered by the NIA and taken up for investigation in April last year. Earlier, two accused were arrested in the case.
Baqavi is the leader (Nakib) of HuT for Thanjavur, Madurai, Erode and Salem districts of Tamil Nadu and Karaikal district of Puducherry, the official said. He is one of the main recruiters for HuT and he preached about the importance of the Islamic State, Khilafah in the general ‘bayaans’ at places across Tamil Nadu, the NIA official said, adding that further probe in the case continues.
During the search, sixteen (16) digital devices including laptop, hard disks, mobile phones, memory cards, SIMs, pen drive and many incriminating books / pamphlets / documents have been recovered,” the agency said.
Several cases in Tamilnadu relating to ISIS have been reported in recent years. Tamilnadu had the first known ISIS recruit in the country. Haja Fakkruddin who hailed from Cuddalore was radicalised joined ISIS and operative from Cuddalore.
In August 2014, the police arrested Abdul Rahman and Mohammad Rizwan from the Ramnathapuram district on the charge that they were distributing t-shirts with the ISIS emblem. A photo showing 26 youth posing with the t-shirt in front of a Mosque at Thondi had surfaced on the social media.
