The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has revealed that the seven ISIS sympathisers arrested in last three days from Kerala were inspired by Islamic Research Foundation’s (IRF) founder Zakir Naik, who is already facing heat for instigating terrorism through his preaching.
According to a Times of India report, it has been found that Manseed alias Omar al-Hindi, the chief of the Islamic State’s module in the country, had worked with the intelligence department of Popular Front India (PFI) for 12 years. Omar was involved in keeping track of the activities of RSS and its functionaries in Kerala.
Popular Front of India is a Muslim organisation that had recently held a demonstration in support of controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik.
The NIA had claimed that the busted module was planning Nice-style attacks on community events, particularly a gathering of religious leaders in Kochi, and had been transferred Rs 38,000 from abroad through Western Union to buy a second-hand vehicle which could be loaded with explosives and driven into the crowd.
During the interrogation, it was found that all seven members of the al-Hindi module were inspired by Naik. They told that they were motivated by his speeches and social media posts.
Manseed told the interrogators that he was expelled from the PFI for marrying a woman from the Philippines. He then fled to Qatar around eight years ago and was working as a sales executive in Doha.
About a year ago, he started following online jihadi activity and reading pro-IS blogs and posts on the internet. While interacting with jihad-minded people on social media, he came across his Afhganistan-based handler Abu Aysha.
Abu helped him put together a Facebook group called ‘Ansar-ul-Khilaaf’, which included youth from Kerala and Tamil Nadu who were inclined towards ISIS.
Manseed revealed that members of the group communicated through encrypted apps like Telegram and Tutanota and kept changing their names to avoid detection. He also told that Abu would material against RSS and indoctrinated the group to target Sangh workers.
The module had drawn up a hit-list that included two High Court judges with “progressive views on Sharia law”, a well-known rationalist and RSS leaders of Kerala besides Jewish visitors to Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu.
Manseed told the interrogators that four of the seven members of the module travelled to Kodaikanal on September 12 to conduct a recee for a possible attack on Jews there. However, they met with an accident on their way, after which they postponed the attack for the first week of October.
While scanning electronic devices seized from the accused, the NIA found material, including details on procuring material for explosives, making explosives from fireworks powder and bomb-making manuals.
Manseed said Abu told him that he had met some of the 21 youth from Kerala who had left India to join ISIS in Tehran in July. He claimed that all the 21 missing Keralites were now based in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.
