Why Tamil Nadu is the cradle for the Islamic State in India

New Delhi, July 14: The National Investigation Agency has busted another module in Tamil Nadu, which was propagating on behalf of the Islamic State.

The NIA searched the the office and house of What-e-Islam Tamil Nadu leader, Syed Mohammad Bukhari. It may be recalled that in raids conducted last month, the agency had arrested six persons.

During the raids, the NIA had seized incriminating documents and learnt that they were propagating on behalf of the Islamic State. Further, it was also found that these persons were propagating the ISIS ideology on the social media and were also aiming at recruiting youth in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

The accused persons, while being within and beyond India, had conspired and conducted consequent preparations to wage war against the Government of India by forming the terrorist gang Ansarulla. It has also been learnt that the accused persons and their associates had collected funds and made preparations to carry out terrorist attacks in India, with the intention of establishing Islamic rule in India.

During searches, 9 mobiles, 15 SIM cards, 7 memory cards, 3 laptops, 5 hard discs, 6 pen drives, 2 tablets and 3 CDs/ DVDs besides documents including magazines, banners, notices, posters and books have been seized by NIA.

The first known ISIS recruit from India was in fact a resident of Cuddalore. Haja Fakkruddin, it may be recalled had in early 2014 left for Syria through Singapore to be part of the ISIS. This was followed by a series of events related to the group and there was an image on the social media that went viral, in which several youth were seen posing with ISIS merchandise.

The threat of the ISIS has been looming large in the state and there are several pockets where the problem is severe. While looking into Haja's case, it was found that he was radicalised by a Cuddalore based group, .

Haja is not the only 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.

During the various searches, literature relating to the ISIS had been found. Speeches of the 20th century Islamist thinker Abul Ala Maududi have been found in the possession of several youth. Further the police have also seized compact discs which had the speeches of radical elements such as Anwar Al Awlaki and Abdul Raheem Green.

The first known ISIS recruit from India was in fact a resident of Cuddalore. Haja Fakkruddin, it may be recalled had in early 2014 left for Syria through Singapore to be part of the ISIS. This was followed by a series of events related to the group and there was an image on the social media that went viral, in which several youth were seen posing with ISIS merchandise.

The threat of the ISIS has been looming large in the state and there are several pockets where the problem is severe. While looking into Haja's case, it was found that he was radicalised by a Cuddalore based group, .

Haja is not the only 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.

During the various searches, literature relating to the ISIS had been found. Speeches of the 20th century Islamist thinker Abul Ala Maududi have been found in the possession of several youth. Further the police have also seized compact discs which had the speeches of radical elements such as Anwar Al Awlaki and Abdul Raheem Green.

The problem of the ISIS did not remain restricted only to Tamil Nadu or the rest of South India. The spill out of this was felt in Maharashtra, where four persons left India for Syria to join the outfit.

However, the biggest case relating to the ISIS was again reported from South India. Nearly 23 persons had gone missing from Kerala and investigations showed that they had joined the ISIS in Afghanistan.

The Afghan wing of the ISIS has been heavily recruiting Indians and the target has always been South and Kerala in particular. It was found that it is easier to target youth from Kerala due to the high levels of radicalisation and hence this has been a preferred destination.