A senior government official has said that two men from Telangana state were in close contact with at least four suspects out of 14 of them held last week by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The two Telangana men, identified as Arshad Ali and Kadir, recently left India to be a part of the Islamic State (IS) in Syria.

The probe has revealed that, Faizan and Arfan, two other group members who are part of the Hyderabad module, are even seen absconding and said to have got visa to travel to Japan.

The Telangana men are both in their mid-twenties. Ali first travelled to Singapore and then reached Syria four months back. Kadir initially took a job in Dubai and then travelled to the conflict zone two months back, according to an official.

The four people who are in the NIA custody, named Nafeez Khan, Mohammad Shariff Mohiuddin, Obedullah Khan and Abu Anas were in contact with these two men who travelled to Syria.

The official said that, "It is true that the Islamic State is trying to recruit at multiple levels in India. The present module was not under the radar of the State police but the Central intelligence agencies had been keeping a watch on them.”

Another official said, “Their preliminary interrogation shows that they wanted to increase the numbers of their followers here and organise attacks to establish a caliphate here.”

- Sumana