Followed speeches of Colombo bombing mastermind, Kerala ISIS operative to NIA

New Delhi, Apr 29: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has Riyas Aboobacker in connection with the Kerala Islamic State case.

The NIA said that during interrogation, he has disclosed that he has been in online contact with absconding accused Abdul Rashid Abdulla alias Abu Isa for a long time and has been following his audio clips including the clip which he had circulated on social media platform instigating others to carryout terror attacks in India.

He revealed that he was also having online chat with Abdul Khayoom @ Abu Khalid (Accused in Valapattanam ISIS Case) who was believed to be in Syria. He has further disclosed that he has been following speeches/videos of Zahran Hashim of Sri Lanka for more than a year and has also followed the speeches of Zakir Naik. He admitted that he wanted to carry out a suicide attack in Kerala.

NIA had earlier received inputs that a group of four persons has been in contact with some of the accused like Abdul Rashid, Ashfaq Majeed, Abdul Khayoom etc who had already migrated to Afghanistan and Syria. After verification,

NIA carried out searches at three places (two in Kasaragod and one in Palakkad District) yesterday. Three group members have been interrogated for their ISIS links and their plans.