In a shocking revelation, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has found that Subahani Haja Moideen, the arrested ISIS operative who got battle training in Iraq, would have been the first “lone wolf” attacker in India in case he was not caught.
According to a Times of India report, Moideen, who was arrested by the NIA from Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, had been a lone operator since his return in India last September and was in constant touch with his Islamic State handlers, discussing over what kind of attack he should carry out.
“He followed all ISIS activities around the world and would study the modus operandi of other lone wolf attackers. He remained unnoticed for a long time because he was operating alone. It's only a few months ago that his activities came on our radar. He could have proved very dangerous as he was trained in everything,” an official was quoted by Times of India as saying.
Sources in intelligence agencies told that Moideen was about to join hands with members of the newly formed module of the IS in Kerala.
It is believed that the 21 missing youth from Kerala have joined the terror outfit and are based in Afghanistan.
During the interrogation, it was found that Moideen has an immense knowledge of computers and may have used the Internet to plan the attacks.
On the other hand, security experts believe that Moideen’s return from the ISIS war zone is a good sign and also indicates what miserable life people are forced to live there.
Moideen told the interrogators that he wanted to leave the organisation as “he couldn’t stand so much violence” and they were treated as second and third-class fighters. He further claimed that he had been jailed for 40 days despite a bad knee injury.
“Their bubble of living in an area ruled according to the Sharia bursts very quickly as there is nothing Islamic about the violent activities of Islamic State. Recruits are punished for even small mistakes, or if they try to defy IS,” said a government official.
Moideen was under watch of the security agencies and when he was giving shape to the plans to carry out the terror attacks in Kerala, NIA arrested him soon after, sources said.
Moideen is said to be the only Indian who got hardened battle training in Mosul in Iraq, they said.
In a statement, the NIA said that the accused had conspired to carry out terror activities in the country and was planning to collect chemical explosives from cracker manufacturers in Tamil Nadu.
The accused was radicalised and recruited in ISIS through social media platforms, the statement said, adding that he had left India for Istanbul from Chennai last year on the pretext of performing 'Umrah'.
