In Coimbatore blast, the role at a Mosque and Sri Lanka link becomes clearer

Zahran Hashim, the mastermind and suicide bomber in the Sri Lanka attacks has become centric in the probe into cases of Jihad in Tamil Nadu. Over the years, he visited India and has radicalised scores of Indian Muslims, especially in Tamil Nadu

New Delhi, Dec 28: The Sri Lanka Islamic State module has cropped up several times even as the National Investigation Agency continues its probe into the Coimbatore blast.

In its report submitted at the Special Court in Ernakulam, Kerala, the NIA said while opposing the bail plea by Mohammed Azharudeen that he was in touch with the Zahran Hashim, the mastermind of the Sri Lanka Easter bombings. He was also in touch with one Mohammad Noushan who was also part of the Islamic State in Kerala.
During the conversations, the NIA found that Mohammed Azharudeen had spoken about a big plan and this conversation took place before the 2019 Easter Day blast at a Church in Colombo.

"The 'big plan' pointed out in the social media extraction had been made soon before the Sri Lankan Easter day blast and this conversation is a strong circumstance pointing out the nexus between the accused Azharudeen and proscribed organisation ISIS world wide," the NIA said before the court.

Further the NIA also said that Azharudeen was a frequent visitor to the Rayan Mosque in Coimbatore where he had delivered 'bayans' since 2013. It was at this Mosque that Azharudeen met with the other accused and radicalised them. Azharudeen is accused of recruiting scores of people to carry out attacks in South India and many of them had been radicalised at the Mosque which the NIA spoke about in its report.

"Both Azharudeen and Sheik Hidayathulla were radicalised through the material accessed online on extreme Salafi ideology since 2016 and the accused used to hear speeches of radical speakers like Anwar Al Awlaqi, Abu Bara, Moosa Cerantonio, Zahran Hashim of Sri Lanka and others. They also downloaded such material and disseminated contents with other associates," the NIA report read.

Violent Islamic Jihad:

OneIndia had reported that the Coimbatore blast was largely inspired by the thoughts of Zahran Hashim. It was also revealed that Jamesha Mubin, the Coimbatore bomber had been in touch with these persons before the blast. Further the NIA found that Hidayatullah a friend of Mubin had started a Facebook page called the Khalifa GFX along with Azharudeen.

The NIA also found that Mubin was in possession nearly 100 videos which were propaganda material. Of this half of them were by Hashim, the agencies found.

Hashim had visited India sometime in 2017 and had radicalised a large number of youth especially in Tamil Nadu. His name had also cropped up following the murder of special sub-inspector Wilson. The killing was undertaken by the Islamic State. Hashim was also instrumental in radicalising the youth into launching violent Jihad and also targeting Hindu leaders in South India.

Hashim was the ringleader of the bombers who carried out the Sri Lanka attacks in 2019.