Tamil Nadu: Youth are being given liquor, not jobs: PMK criticises DMK

Chennai/Thanjavur/Erode: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday arrested two men from Thanjavur in the Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT) case after conducting serial searches at 10 locations in five districts of Tamil Nadu – Tiruchi, Erode, Chennai and Thanjavur. An official release issued by the agency said that the searches also led to the seizure of digital devices and several “incriminating” documents such as books and printouts containing the ideologies of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Khilafa, Islamic State and proposed Khilafa government and its financing structure. The arrested persons have been identified as Abdul Rahman alias Abdul Rahman (26) and Mujibur Rahman alias Mujibur Rahman Altham Sahib (45), both residents of Saliyamangalam village in Thanjavur. The NIA alleged that they are members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an international pan-Islamist and fundamentalist organisation working to re-establish the Islamic Caliphate and implement the constitution written by Hizb-ut-Tahrir founder Taqi al-Din al-Nabhani. According to the release, the investigation found that the arrested persons were involved in conducting secret classes to radicalise youths in extremist ideologies and propagate democracy and the Indian Constitution as anti-Islam. The NIA statement said that the trainees were taught that India is now Darul Kufr (land of non-believers) and it is their duty to convert it into Darul Islam by establishing an Islamic state in the country with the help of violent jihad. Suspects called for questioning on July 2, 4 Abdul Rahman was arrested from his uncle’s house near Subramaniyapuram in Tiruchi, from where the NIA team took him to his native village in Thanjavur for questioning. Apart from the houses of the suspects, two houses were searched in Ammal Nagar and Manangorai village in Thanjavur. Searches were conducted at two places in Erode. Mobile phones, pen drives and Islamic books were seized from the houses of a photographer in Ashok Nagar and a two-wheeler mechanic in Periyar Nagar. They had allegedly campaigned in support of the banned Huth organisation. The two men have been called for questioning at the NIA office in Chennai on July 2 and 4 respectively. In Chennai, the house of a man in Mudichur near Tambaram was searched. A police source said the search began at 5 am and went on for over two hours.