Bengaluru: Newly married couple picked up by NIA on terror suspicion

Bengaluru, Sep 24: A newly married Muslim couple were picked up by a joint team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Telangana Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on suspicion of terror links in the city on Saturday.

According to police sources, the joint team was tailing the suspect Javed Rafiq (30), who was with his wife, from a distance and on realising that he would be nabbed, he tried to escape.

Telangana Police constable Srinivas, who is part of the ATS, tried to stop him, but Rafiq attacked him with a sharp object.

Rafiq and the constable were immediately rushed to a local hospital. Rafiq’s wife Yasmin was taken aback by the sudden development and the NIA team detained her later.

The incident comes a day after the NIA picked up 14 men including six from Karnataka in a pre-dawn swoop for allegedly being sympathisers of ISIS.

“The incident took place at Doddanagamangala and a constable was injured in the attack. The suspect is wanted by the NIA in a particular case. The City police are yet to be informed about the raid by the NIA,” Bengaluru Police Commissioner N S?Megharik said on Saturday.

However, Megharik said he did not have details of the case in which Rafiq was wanted. As many as six NIA and ATS teams are in Bengaluru and more arrests cannot be ruled out, sources added. “The attack took place before the couple could enter the house,” said DCP (south-east) M B Boralingaiah.

Rafiq is from Delhi and moved to Bengaluru three years ago. He married Yasmin six-months ago and the couple were staying in the second floor of a four-storeyed building owned by one Ashraf on 4th main road, Vinayaka Nagar.

The City police were not sure whether Yasmin was also involved in terror activities. “We have no information and we have not been keeping a tab on her,” said a senior police officer.

Sources in the City police said the joint team arrived here on Saturday to detain Rafiq. The jurisdictional Parappana Agrahara police have decided to register a case against Ashraf and interrogate him.