MP ATS arrests 5 from Hyd for alleged links to Hizb-Ut-Tahrir

Hyderabad, May 9 The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Madhya Pradesh police on Tuesday arrested five suspects from Hyderabad for their alleged links to the radical Islamist group Hizb-Ut-Tahrir (HUT).

In an operation conducted in coordination with the local police and central agencies, the ATS arrested the suspects, including the head of biotechnology department at a local college, a cloud service engineer and a dentist.

According to sources, the suspects hailed from Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and other places and were residing in Hyderabad for some time now. They were picked up from Golconda, Hafiz Baba Nagar and other places in and around Hyderabad.

The arrests were made based on the information collected from 11 other suspects held earlier in the day from Bhopal and Chhindwara in Mdhya Pradesh.

Intelligence agencies reportedly found that Mohammed Saleem from Bhopal was working as a lecturer of biotechnology at a college here. Abdul Rehman from Odisha was working as a cloud service engineer at a firm.

Another suspect, Mohammed Abbas, was working as an autorickshaw driver and was staying at Hafiz Baba Nagar. Mohammed Hamid was working as a daily wage worker and was residing at Maqdum Nagar in Jagadgirigutta. Mohammed Salman was also working as a daily wage worker and residing in Jawahar Nagar.

As per the interrogation of the 11 persons held in Madhya Pradesh earlier in the day, they were reportedly planning to set up a base in Madhya Pradesh.

The ATS reportedly seized jihadi literature, knives and airguns from those arrested.