INDORE: The Anti-terrorist squad (ATS) of Madhya Pradesh which recently dismantled a Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) module and arrested  16 people from Madhya Pradesh and Telangana revealed that at least 8 of these terrorists had converted to Islam. 
Three men from Bhopal have been detained; they were married to Hindu women and afterwards coerced them into becoming Muslims. Mohammad Salim, also known as Saurabh Rajvaidya, the module's imprisoned leader, was a professor at Hyderabad's Asaduddin Owaisi-run Deccan Medical College.

 Anti-terrorist squad asserted, the organisation used aggressive speeches and lectures to brainwash non-Muslims who were weak and fragile in order to persuade people to become Muslims. They sought to incite terrorism and declare war on the nation.

Yasin Khan, who was seized in Bhopal, and Mohammad Salim, who was detained in Hyderabad, were reportedly believed to be the group's leaders, according to ATS sources. Yasin Khan was employed as a fitness instructor in Bhopal, whereas Salim, a resident of Hyderabad's Golconda neighbourhood, was employed as a professor at the Deccan Medical College, which is run by Asaduddin Owaisi. Mohammad Salim is a native of Berasia, which is located in Bhopal. He goes by Saurabh Rajvaidya in real life. 2009 saw the marriage of Saurabh.

2010 saw Saurabh's conversion to Islam. The community and his parents opposed his conversion. Later on, in 2012, Saurabh's wife converted to Islam as well. When his attempts to obtain a conversion certificate in Bhopal proved unsuccessful, Saurabh aka Salim decided to fly to Maharashtra to obtain the document. Later, he moved to Hyderabad, where he served as a professor in the Deccan College of Medical Sciences' Biotechnical Department. Salim used to provide inflammatory speeches and lectures to persuade people to convert to Islam and join the terrorist group.

Two further suspects, Abdul Rehman and Mohammad Abbas, were also previously Hindus who were persuaded to convert to Islam through brainwashing. Before converting to Islam, Devi Prasad Panda, an Odisha citizen, was known as Abdul Rehman. In a similar vein, before converting to Islam, Hyderabad resident Mohammad Abbas was Bux Venu Kumar.

Yasir Khan, a gym teacher stationed in Shahjahanabad, wed a Hindu woman, ATS sources said. He then coerced her into converting to Islam. Two additional Hizb ut-Tahrir members who were apprehended had also compelled their respective wives to convert from Hinduism to Islam.

While waiting, the ATS team transported some of the detained suspects to Hyderabad, including Mohammad Salim, Abdul Rahman, Mohammad Abbas Ali, Sheikh Junaid, and Mohammad Hamid. Based on the information given by the detained youngsters, the squad would be conducting searches at the terrorist's other hideouts.

Expressing concerns that arrested Mohammad Salim was working as a professor in the Biotechnical Department of the Deccan College of Medical Sciences owned by AIMIM party chief Asaduddin Owaisi, Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar said that Hyderabad has become a shelter for terrorists with the Majlis party providing support as one of the arrested Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) activists turning out to be an employee of Owaisi hospital.