New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested a “Facebook friend” of Zahran Hashim, the suicide bomber of Sri Lanka’s Easter terror attacks, from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.
Mohammed Azarudeen, 32, was arrested Wednesday and will be produced in the special NIA court Thursday, following which he will be taken into custody for questioning.
The arrest, which was made after searches were conducted at seven locations in Coimbatore, is the first establishing a link between Islamic State (IS) modules in Coimbatore and Sri Lanka, an NIA source said. The IS had claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings that killed over 250 people.
According to the NIA, Azarudeen led the ISIS module in Coimbatore and maintained a Facebook page named “KhilafahGFX” through which he propagated ISIS ideology and carried out recruitment of youngsters.
“Mohammed Azarudeen has been a Facebook friend of Sri Lankan suicide bomber Zahran Hashim, and other members of the module have also been sharing radical contents attributed to Zahran Hashim over the social media,” an NIA spokesperson said.
“We had been observing and watching Azarudeen’s social media activities. Apart from sharing radical content attributed to Zahran Hashim, he had also made many Facebook pages, where he uploaded speeches to brainwash youngsters. He often shared their links with potential recruits,” an officer from the security establishment said.
The case
The NIA had registered a case against six suspects — Azarudeen, Akram Sindhaa (26), Y. Shiek Hidayathullah (38), Abubacker M. (29), Sadham Hussain A .(26) and Ibrahim (28) — after the agency received specific information that they were propagating ISIS ideology on social media with the intention of recruiting vulnerable youths for the terror outfit.
According to the NIA, the recruitments were being done to carry out terror attacks in south India, especially in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
“Azarudeen was also in direct touch with Ibrahim, a close associate of arrested accused Riyas Abubacker, who had planned to conduct terror attacks in Kerala on behalf of the ISIS,” an investigator said.
Air-gun pellets, hard discs, mobile phones recovered
During the searches in Coimbatore, the NIA recovered 14 mobile phones, 29 SIM cards, 10 pen drives, three laptops, six memory cards, four hard discs, one internet dongle and 13 CDs/ DVDs.
“A dagger, one electric baton, 300 air-gun pellets and a large number of incriminating documents and a few PFI/SDMI pamphlets have been seized from the houses and work places of the accused persons,” the NIA spokesperson said.
According to a source in the agency, the incriminating documents included blueprints of Kerala’s map, lists of weaponry and a few documents with codes and algorithm.
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