NIA arrests two Hizb-ut-Tahrir members from Thanjavur after raids in 10 locations

CHENNAI: After a day-long search at ten locations in five districts across Tamil Nadu including a place near Chennai, National Investigation Agency (NIA) sleuths on Sunday arrested two persons who are said to be members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an international pan-Islamic fundamentalist organization.

The arrested persons were identified as Abdul Rehman alias Abdul Rahman and Mujibur Rehman alias Mujibur Rahman Altham Sahib, both of whom hail from Thanjavur district. NIA investigation revealed that they were involved in conducting secret classes promoting democracy and the Indian Constitution, law and judiciary etc., as ‘anti-Islamic’.

"The trainees were taught that India was now a ‘Darul Kufr’ (land of non-believers) and hence it was their duty to transform it into ‘Darul Islam’ by establishing an Islamic state in the country by waging violent jihad," an official statement from the NIA said.

The sleuths seized mobile phones, laptops, SIM cards, memory cards, and several incriminating documents including books and printouts containing the ideologies of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir, the Khilafa, the Islamic State, as well as the proposed Khilafa government and its funding structures.

In Chennai, an NIA team headed by a DSP (Deputy Superintendent of Police) along with personnel from Tambaram city police conducted searches at the house of a 40-year-old man, Kabeer Ahmed, in Mudichur, police sources said. The searches started at 5:30 am today.

The Hizb-ut-Tahrir is working to re-establish an Islamic caliphate and enforce the constitution written by its founder Taqi al-Din al-Nabhani, the NIA said. The organization was started in 1953 in Jordan and has been banned in several countries including China, Russia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Germany.