Covering ISIS activities

Reporting on ISIS scare

In 2016, Sudhakar reported busts on ISIS modules in Hyderabad which had hoarded explosive material and were planning attacks in the city. The first bust had four suspects arrested in January and 5 in July, both becoming a major save for Hyderabad from terrorist attacks.

In January 2016, Sudhakar reported about the arrest of suspected NIA recruiters from Tolichowki in Hyderabad. The NIA found large amounts of unaccounted cash from the suspects that pointed to the extent of the operation.

One of the key revelations of the arrest in January is that the suspects, who were ‘Warriors of Caliph in India’ were planning on breaking out IM’s Yasin Bhatkal from jail. Sudhakar explained how the handlers of both outfits worked on recruiting youth in Hyderabad and parts of the country. While around 300 persons were kept under watch for their ‘proclivity to join ISIS’ around 60 were arrested for their links with ISIS.

In an interview with one of the suspect’s father, Sudhakar writes about how the father was unaware of his son’s involvement with ISIS. The father had gone hungry many a time to fund his children’s education.

Similarly, in July, a major crisis was averted when NIA officials busted a terror plot led by two brothers – Ibrahim and Ilyas Yazdani – who were planning multiple IED blasts in Hyderabad before Id. Sudhakar wrote a series of articles detailing the outfit’s composition, history and occupation of its members, and their modus operandi. Sudhakar detailed the ‘chemical bomb’ being made for explosions in the city which could have released toxic fumes of oxides of nitrogen in large quantities.

Sudhakar also interviewed IB officials who spoke about the expats from the Telugu countries living in UAE and Saudi Arabia and their attempts to join ISIS. His articles provided dimensions to the large-scale terror operation which stretched from Syria, Iraq to districts in Hyderabad. Most of the members of the busted outfit were tech grades learning how to make bombs off the internet and were also being trained by their handler from Syria through Skype. Sudhakar wrote about Intelligence tracking consignments of medicines from India sent to the Gulf countries to find them end with the ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

Sudhakar, while writing about the methodology of extremism, states how one of the suspects was inspired by the speeches of Yemeni English scholar Anwar al-Awlaki, who is also a prime motivator behind Al Qaeda recruitments. The suspects also had a considerable amount of books and videos that propagated extremist principles. Sudhakar also wrote about the benefits of positive de-radicalization among the youth and how it is different from counter-radicalization.