Islamic State men had planned to strike Hyderabad between 5 pm and 7 pm

Hyderabad: The Islamic State (IS) suspects, arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday, had planned to strike Hyderabad between 5 pm to 7 pm in a bid to maximum damage.

The five accused arrested by the NIA were produced before the magistrate yesterday amid tight security at Nampally Criminal Court. They were later sent to judicial custody till July 14.

During the interrogation of the suspects, the NIA came to know that orders were given to the suspects by Mohammad Shafi Armar, the head and principal recruiter of Islamic State or ISIS in India.

OneIndia has quoted an NIA official as saying the suspects could have struck Hyderabad on Wednesday itself had they not been taken into custody.

As per the remand report submitted by the NIA at a court in Hyderabad yesterday, besides attacking various places in the city, the five arrested ISIS men had also conspired to target prominent personalities.

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 earlier.

In another revelation, a report in Deccan Chronicle today said that suspects were in constant touch with each other over Internet and had been directed by ISIS operatives in Syria to unleash violent attacks in the city before Eid.

Meanwhile, a report in The New Indian Express quoted NIA sources as saying that the arrested ISIS 'sympathisers' had contributed Rs 1.5 lakh to carry out terror attacks. Also, at least two ISIS members, Habeeb Mohammad, and Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani, had even visited Ajmer a short time ago to purchase weapons. An initial investigation revealed that they paid Rs 65,000 but could not get weapons and ammunition.

“Later, Habeeb and Ibrahim made a trip to Nanded in Maharashtra to buy two semi-automatic 9 mm pistols. Subsequently, Habeeb bought chemicals like sulphuric acid, acetone, hydrogen peroxide from Hyderabad and Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh,” NIA sources said. The NIA added that the men had tested an IED and conducted practice sessions at an isolated place in Hyderabad.

Reports had said that the accused were allegedly planning to target places of worship, information technology corridors, and police stations.

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.