NEW DELHI: Covert anti-terror investigators have stumbled on the biggest India-linked terror financier. The Dubai-based financial expert from Mumbai has exploited the legitimate money transfer route to help the Islamic State’s (IS) terror activities in Syria and Iraq. The terror outfit received an estimated Rs 40 lakh last year from Abu Nabil (real name Jamil), an MBA. The Rajasthan Anti-Terror Squad’s (ATS) electronic warfare unit earlier this month received confirmation in this regard from Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities.
The money is just the tip of the iceberg as investigators continue to unravel the funds moved through various layers. Nabil had hired mules in Sarajevo, Beirut and Istanbul to deliver the money to IS’s killing fields in Raqqa and Anbar provinces.
Some more Indian names have come on the radar of the investigators. They were allegedly used as couriers between India-Bangladesh and the UAE.
ATS operatives overrode the control system on a Dubai-based computer in October last year. It was Nabil talking to the ‘Beast of Islam’. The electronic ambush revealed that money was about to be transferred from Dubai to Sarajevo. The total amount was around $9,000 in three installments. The IS had adopted the rules of the ultra-secret world and unprecedented manoeuvres in the virtual world.
The operatives were working against a background of a state-of-the-art dark web, the most potent threats the world faces today. Another amount of $10,000 in four equal installments was shifted to Beirut and the ‘Beast of Islam’ was informed about the account. Two days later, another $12,000 was transferred to Istanbul in three installments. The ‘Beast of Islam’ had hired IS mules in all three cities and within a few weeks, the money landed in Raqqa.
A month later ‘Operation Nabil’ tracked the pugmarks of the Indian financier in Mumbai. He was picked up, interrogated and arrested for financing terrorism in Iraq and Syria. “We have forwarded the Letter Rogatory (LR) seeking information about 19 such transactions made by Nabil. It was his code name. We received confirmation recently about at least five-six transactions from Sarajevo and Beirut. Nabil’s linkages with ‘Beast of Islam’ have also been established. He is a top-ranking terrorist leader in IS. He was christened Abu Usama Al Somali by IS’s so-called caliph Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi,” a source said.
Abu Nabil was in touch with Abu Usama Al Somali, who is none other than Farah Mohamed Shirdon, a Canadian citizen, a prominent fundraiser and recruiter of the Islamic States. There were raging controversies about his death in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Unconfirmed reports had suggested that he was killed sometime in July 2015, but his links with Nabil nullify these half-baked reports.
“Nabil was in touch with Shirdon as well as a few other top leaders of IS. This has been confirmed by evidence collected electronically. Now, we have also confirmed the fact that he raised the money from India, Bangladesh and the UAE in the name of ‘Zakaat’. The donations were moved through a well-established hawala network in India,” a source said.
Senior IPS officer and well-known anti-terror operative Vikas Kumar said that they are facing some language barriers in Beirut and Istanbul about crucial details related to financial transactions made by Nabil. He said the authorities handling anti-terror financing units in these countries have raised certain queries on our documents. However, the money transfer scheme operators are coming forward to share the details.
“Nabil is the biggest India-linked IS terror financier we have been able to unearth so far. It is not just about his top connection in IS leadership in Raqqa, but also about his deep penetration in Bosnia, Lebanon and Turkey. Since 2014, he has mobilised funds through various online platforms.
He is an MBA and his shadowy operation to finance IS activities was well-planned,” Kumar said, adding that Nabil was earning Rs 3.5 lakh per month though his employer has told us that they were not aware of his activities. “He was using a separate UAE phone number, which he had left in Dubai. We have asked the UAE authorities to provide us with the call and message records of his phone. The request has been sent through an LR. Nabil was investing huge sums in real estate in Mumbai. He had purchased three properties in Mumbai suburbs between 2014 and 2016 through his brother-in-law,” explained Kumar.
Indian Donors & Couriers
The investigators last week questioned three persons in a covert sweep. Originally from Tamil Nadu, the suspects had allegedly donated ‘Zakaat’ money to Nabil through a hawala operator. The Chennai-based hawala operator, in turn, used to send the money to Dubai where Nabil was the recipient. From Dubai, the money was sent to Turkey.
“At least two suspects during the questioning said they were not aware of the ultimate use of the donation money. Nabil had told them the money would be used for poor Indian immigrants in the UAE. We need to establish the criminality on their part,” Kumar further added.
An official handling the foreign angle of the investigation said they have asked the authorities in three countries—Lebanon, Bosnia and Turkey—to find out about couriers that were used to withdraw the money from money transfer account.
“We suspect they are part of a recruitment network that is facilitating money movement in cash across the Syrian border. Initial information indicate the involvement of an IS network based in Sarajevo,” the official said.
Nabil and Awlaki
The most shocking revelation for the investigators is Nabil’s link with Anwar al-Awlaki, the Al Qaeda leader, who was killed in September 2011 in Yemen during a drone strike carried out by the US Special Forces. The investigators have seized a laptop from Nabil’s home in Dahanu near Mumbai, which provided explosive conversations between the two in 2010 and 2011. Awlaki, an American citizen of Yemeni descent, was a preacher of at least three 9/11 hijackers.
Awlaki had set up a vast terror network in Yemen in 2009. In 2010, the US designated him a global terrorist. It is learnt from the evidence recovered from Nabil’s laptop that he got in touch with Awlaki sometime in mid-2010 and continued the communication till September 30, 2011, when Awlaki was killed in a drone strike near Kashef town in Yemen. “He was tasked by Awlaki to raise funds and radicalise more people back in India for jihad. Nabil himself wanted to go to Syria after collecting more money, but the whole plan was nipped in the bud,” the official quoted above said.