Shafi Armar: 26-year-old sought to set up ISIS module in every Indian state

Mohammad Shafi Armar is just 26 years of age and today according to investigators he is the key link between the ISIS and the Indian recruits. An interpol notice on him reads that he is wanted for criminal conspiracy read with terrorist acts, raising funds and recruiting persons for terrorist acts and also being a member of a terrorist organisation.

A resident of Bhatkal, his name is Mohammad Shafi and his family name Armar. He is fluent in English, Kannada, Urdu and Hindi. His pseudo name is Yousouf al-Hindi. He is also the brother of Sultan Armar the founder of the Ansar-ul-Tawhid the agency which is alleged to be recruiting Indians into the ISIS.

Shafi lived in the shadow of his brother Sultan. Although he was active in recruitments along with his brother, he came into the picture only recently. The death of his brother Sultan at Syria is what made him take over the mantle.

At 26 he planned an India wide module

If investigators are to be believed then the recently busted module of the ISIS was floated by Shafi Armar. A job that his brother began two years back is now being completed by Shafi. While there are various versions of what exactly this Indian ISIS module was planning, one thing is clear and that is the primary intent was to set up shop in India.

Shafi during his conversations with the Mumbai based Muddabbir Shaikh who was arrested by the NIA had plotted setting up a module in every state.

He wanted to have modules in every state so that the recruiting could go on unabated. Although there are indications that these persons plotted strikes, the primary intent was to set up a strong base in India.

He even effected a name change to the Ansar-ul-Tawhid. He decided to call it the Junud al-Khalifa-e-Hind. This was clearly done because there was too much heat being generated on the Ansar. Terrorist groups are known to change names so that they dodge intelligence for sometime at least.

Shafi had even wired money to some of the operatives so that they could set shop in India. Investigations have shown that over the past year he sent across Rs 6 lakh in installments so that modules could be set up and also training programmes could be conducted.

OneIndia News