Seized literature reveals radical fangs getting deeper in south India

The NIA has found literature relating to the Islamic State. Speeches of the 20th century Islamic thinker Abu Ala Maududi too have been found during the searches.

New Delhi, Aug 02: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday carried out raids in multiple locations in India in connection with an Islamic State case. The NIA also conducted searches in Kerala in connection with a case pertaining to the arrest of Sathik Batcha alias ICAMA Sathik who along with four others attempted to kill police personnel during a vehicle check in February.

The case is an important one as it deals with the extreme level of radicalisation that has been taking place down south. The cases date back to February when an outfit called the Manitha Neeti Pasarai came under the scanner of the NIA.

The NIA had arrested Batcha and four of his associates in February and according to the agencies these persons are the sympathisers of the Islamic State. In a chargesheet filed by the NIA, it said that the conspirators who formed the terror group are v, Mehboob Pasha from Bengaluru and Khaja Moideen of Cuddalore. The case was originally registered by the Bengaluru police. The case relates to Pasha, a resident of Bengaluru, who in association with Moideen and Sadiq Basha, formed a terror group for spreading the ideology and activities of the ISIS.

The spread of the Islamic State in south India is nothing new. The outfit found traction first in Tamil Nadu before it made its way into Kerala and Karnataka. In early 2014, the agencies learnt that one Haha Fakhruddin was radicalised by a Cuddalore based group in Tamil Nadu. Haja is not the only one operative from Cuddalore to have joined the ISIS. A computer engineer was deported recently from Singapore. He said that it was he who had introduced Haja to this organisation, following which he was radicalised.

An official explains that the kind of material that is used by these groups to radicalise the Muslims is evident from what the NIA has seized during the raids. In addition to digital devices, laptops, etc the NIA has found literature relating to the Islamic State. Speeches of the 20th century Islamic thinker Abu Ala Maududi too have been found during the searches. Compact discs which had the speeches of radicals such as Anwar Al Awlaki and Abdul Raheem Green too had been found.

The NIA speaks about the role of Mohammad Naseer, a computer engineer in his mid 20s. Naseer was heading to Libya from Sudan, but was apprehended and later deported to India.

He did his computer engineering from the MNM college in Chennai. It was at this time that he would visit a mosque at Chennai which was run by the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath, non-political Islamic Organisation that preaches a puritanical version of Islam.

This group was founded by P Jainul Abdeen in 2004, when he broke away from the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam.

The role of the ISIS in Tamil Nadu was unraveled in a big way in 2014. In August 2014, the police arrested Abdul Rahman and Mohammad Rizwan from the Ramnathapuram district on the charge that they were distributing t-shirts with the ISIS emblem. A photo showing 26 youth posing with the t-shirt in front of a Mosque at Thondi had surfaced on the social media. While the police were not able to find any direct link with the outfit, it however showed that the Islamic State was gradually being received in the state.

Ismail in his confession had said that Ashiq had promised them help for their operation. The NIA says that Ismail had links with the ISIS. The intention was to carry out a major operation on Ganesh Chaturthi. These developments are significant in the wake of the murders in Coimbatore. Munnani spokesperson C Sasikumar in 2016 and an atheist H Farook in 2017 were murdered by radical Islamic groups.