In ISIS raids at Tamil Nadu, usual suspects PFI, SDPI crop up
New Delhi, June 13: The National Investigation which conducted raids in Tamil Nadu in connection with an Islamic State case found material that belong to the Popular Front of India and Social Democratic Party of India.
The PFI has cropped up in several such investigations relating to terrorism cases. The name of the outfit cropped up for the first time in 2013 in the Narath Arms Case of Kannur. This case related to a training camp and the NIA said that it was also linked to the Indian Mujahideen.
Further the NIA also found that KhilafahGFX was a Facebook page through which the ideology of the Islamic State was being propagated in South India.
KhilafahGFX, the Facebook page that propagated ISIS ideology in South India
On
Wednesday
the
National
Investigation
Agency
which
conducted
raids
at
Tamil
Nadu
has
registered
a
case
against
one
person,
suspected
to
be
part
of
the
Islamic
State.
The
person
has
been
identified
as
Mohammad
Azharuddin.
The
NIA
said
that
he
is
suspected
to
have
recruited
persons
from
Kerala
and
Tamil
Nadu,
with
an
intention
of
carrying
out
attacks
in
South
India.
The prime accused Mohammed was the leader of the module and had been maintaining the Facebook page named "KhilafahGFX", through which he had been propagating the ideology of ISIS/ Daish. The accused was 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.
During the searches digital devices including 14 mobile phones, 29 SIM cards, 10 pen drives, 3 laptops, 6 memory cards, 4 hard disc drives, 1 internet dongle and 13 CDs/ DVDs besides one dagger, one electric baton, 300 air-gun pellets and a large no. of incriminating documents and few PFI/ SDPI pamphlets have been seized from the houses and work places of accused persons.
The raids come in the wake of a two member NIA team visiting Sri Lanka last month to find out if there was any Indian link to the attacks. The NIA had said that the visit to Colombo was to exchange information and evidence gathered. This would be mutually beneficial the NIA had also said.
ISIS was recruiting from Kerala, TN to strike in South India: NIA
In the Coimbatore case, the NIA had found evidence too show that the Zahran Hashmi, the mastermind of the Easter Bombings had intended to target Churches. Further in 2018 the NIA had charged five persons from Coimbatore. It was on the basis of these interrogations that India had shared information with Sri Lanka about a possible attack.
Further the NIA had also arrested one Riyaz Aboobacker, a resident of Kerala. During the probe, he had said that he too had intended on replicating the Sri Lankan bombings in India. However the NIA did not find anything to link directly to the Sri Lanka attacks and said that he was acting independently along with his accomplices in India.