On July 12, National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested two persons from Pune District in Maharashtra in connection with their links with Islamic State (IS), reports Indian Express. Nabeel Khatri who runs a gymnasium in Pune and Sadiya Shaikh, a student of mass communication at a Baramati college in Pune District were allegedly in contact with the arrested Kashmiri couple, Jahanazaib Sami Wani and his wife Hina Bashir Beigh. The Kashmiri couple had been arrested on March 8, 2020 from Delhi for their alleged affiliations with the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), a fraction of banned IS. According to the NIA, Nabeel Khatri along with Jahanzeb Sami and Abdullah Basith was actively involved in the planning to carry out violent terrorist attacks in India by arranging logistical support such as procurement of weapons, fake SIM cards, assembling of improvised explosive devices etc. to further the activities of IS in India. Whereas Sadiya Shaikh was allegedly trying to “build up a cadre of IS in India by recruiting gullible youth for terrorist activities”. Sadiya was previously arrested in 2018 in Jammu and Kashmir for allegedly planning to execute a terrorist attack. Prior to this, Sadiya had been intercepted from going to Syria to join IS in 2015. Both Nabeel and Sadiya were under the radar of intelligence agencies for long time. The duo was allegedly in touch with other arrestees through secure messaging platforms. Both the arrestees were taken by NIA to Delhi on July 13.