KOCHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is verifying links of Lankan blast mastermind and of National Towheeth Jamaath leader Zahran Hashim with IS sympathisers in Kerala. Even though no direct link has been established yet, the NIA suspects that IS sympathisers were following Zahran through social media networks.
Intelligence agencies had found that Malayalees from Vandiperiyar, Perumbavoor, Thrissur and Palakkad allegedly attended meetings organised by Towheeth Jamaath in 2016 in Madurai and Namakkal.
According to sources, Zahran’s doctrinal videos were widely popular among the people who were radicalised and followed IS.
“The IS sympathisers who had left for Afghanistan and Syria were sending several videos and audio clips for recruiting more people to IS. We’re checking whether videos of Zahran were also among them,” a source said.In several cases it was found that Book of Jihad by Ibn Nuhaas, teachings of American and Yemeni imam Anwar al-Awlaki and Zakir Naik were used to motivate IS recruits. Ghazwatul Hind, the Hadith (Prophet’s teachings) in Quran was misinterpreted by radical groups as an appeal to conquer India.