ISIS recruiter Shafi Armar's death not yet confirmed:IB

Indian Intelligence Agencies have not been able to confirm the news relating to the death of Shafi Armar, the recruiter in chief for the Islamic State in India. Earlier this week the ISIS declared that Abu Yusuf al-Hindi alias Shafi Armar a resident of Bhatkal was killed in Syria's Raqqa area.

We are still working on it and ascertaining the correct picture, an IB officer said. Such news has come out in the past as well, but it turned out to be false. We are observing the chat channels to ascertain whether the ISIS faked his death.

The state department described Armar as a "leader and head recruiter in India for the Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) group, ISIS".

He became the chief recruiter in India after his brother Sultan Armar died in March 2015. The state department also listed his numerous aliases, including Anjan Bhai, Chote Maula and Yousouf al-Hindi.

"He has cultivated a group of dozens of ISIS sympathisers who are involved in terrorist activities across India, such as plotting attacks, procuring weapons, and identifying locations for terrorist training camps," said a statement from the state department.

Who is Shafi Armar?

Shafi Armar is the second among the three children of a family that hails from the coastal town of Bhatkal in Karnataka. His elder brother Sultan Armar is said to have taken him along with him and together they had joined the Indian Mujahideen.

Hailing from the same place, both Shafi and Sultan were taken into the IM by Riyaz Bhatkal. While Sultan was active in IM operations, Shafi was more of a second in command for the operations undertaken by his brother. Shafi does not have any record of taking part in terrorist activities in the real sense.

His activities were online and he was in charge of the media operations. A lot of literature concerning the ISIS posted on the Ansar site were said to be the handiwork of Shafi.

His family members in Bhatkal say that he and Sultan left home around 5 years back and they have no idea about their whereabouts.

OneIndia News