Within Hyderabad, ‘terror’ finds new addresses

Alleged terror rings in Hyderabad are being busted in new areas, unlike in the past when only Saidabad was said to be a den of radical elements. Chandrayangutta, a tranquil, lower middle-class neighbourhood from where college student Obaid-ur Rehman was arrested by Bangalore police last week, is apparently one such hotbed. Other areas under watch are Malakpet and Shivarampalli.

Officials say that as Saidabad is monitored with a magnifying glass by police and investigation agencies, many radical elements including former SIMI activists have moved to Chandrayangutta and Malakpet.

So far, all of Hyderabad's alleged terror-linked elements were identified with Saidabad, which is home to the family of Nasiruddin, the fiery cleric who was acquitted by a Gujarat court in the murder of former minister Haren Pandya. His three sons are in various jails in the country in terror cases.

The founder of the radical organization Darsgah Jihad, Shahadat Shaik Mehboob Ali who died in 2011, too lived here. So does Abdul Aleem Islahi, who runs a madrasa for women here and whose son Mohtassim Billa was once arrested for links with terror groups. "Saidabad was like a magnet for radical elements. SIMI's Safdar Nagori, Mufti Abu Basher were regular visitors,'' says an official of Crime Central Station's SIT.

It was since the arrest of Nasiruddin and his three sons, followed by that of many others allegedly linked with terror groups, that Saidabad has been under constant monitoring.

The residential-cum-industrial areas of Chandrayangutta, where the Defence Electronics Research Lab of DRDO is located, has allegedly become the recruiting ground for the Popular Front of India and terror groups. Here in the lanes and bylanes of Hafizbabanagar, Barkas, Jehangirabad and other areas, youths are being allegedly lured with online lectures and documentaries about alleged atrocities on Muslims.

Obaid-ur Rehman, 21, who is related to Nasiruddin, is said to be a product of the new networks of single-person cells.

... contd.

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