A local court in Vijayawada extended the judicial custody of five alleged terror suspects till April 20, allowing police to keep them in custody from April 9 to 13 for questioning.
The five accused, including Mohammed Rahantulla Sharif, Mohammed Danish, Mirza Sohail Beg, Saida Begum, and Abdul Salam, were among 12 people arrested on March 24 for harbouring links to terror outfits such as al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
According to senior police officers, the accused claimed to have come into contact with a foreign national who assumed the role of their "handler", upon whose alleged instructions they created multiple groups on Telegram and Instagram to propagate ideas of "jihad" and "Ghazwa-e-Hind" and recruit and radicalise others.
Investigators found examples of extremist literature, videos, and propaganda circulated on social media by the accused and their associates, with the probe still underway.
