KOCHI: A team of National Investigation Agency (NIA) is in France to share information regarding the Islamic State (IS) attack at Paris in 2015. The NIA team, comprising NIA assistant superintendent Shoutkat Ali, an inspector general from New Delhi and another officer reached Paris on April 26 and they would return on April 30.
The NIA had shared information about some of the persons involved in the Paris attacks with French agencies after the arrest of Subahani Haja, a Thodupuzha native, who allegedly fought for IS at Mosul, Iraq before returning to India in 2015.
After the arrest, Subahani had given statement to the NIA that he was working for IS regiment named Omer-Kathi-Kaliph. The commander of the group was one Abu Sulaimani Al Francisse. During his stay at the regiment, some of person involved in the Paris attack had visited Abu Sulaiman, including Abdel Hamid, Abdesalam and Mohammad Usman.
Abdel Hamid was shot dead by the security agencies while other two are still in the custody of French investigation team. NIA team would be conducting meeting with three agencies in Paris.
"After passing the information, the French agencies had conducted a meeting at NIA headquarters last year. During the meeting, a photograph was shown to Subahani and he could identify several persons involved in the Paris attack. As part of the probe, the NIA team was invited to Paris by the French agencies to conduct a meeting,” an official said.
Subahani Haja Moideen is currently lodged at district jail in Kakkanad, Kochi after the NIA filed charge-sheet against him at an NIA court recently.
Subahani, who reached Iraq via Turkey was trained at an IS camp before his induction into the terror outfit. He decided to return to India after seeing one of his friend charred to death in the battlefield. However, he was lodged at a jail in Raqqa, Syria before he was released after he agreed to work for the jihadi group after reaching India.
Trained by Lashkar-e-Taiba
Pakistani national Mohammed Usman, who was caught by Austrian security agencies for having been involved in the Paris attacks, was trained by Lashkar-e-Taiba to fight against India.
However, Usman, later, shifted allegiance to the terror group in Afghanistan before being picked by the IS to be deployed for Paris attacks. However, he could not reach Paris and was arrested from Austria in December 2015. Subahani Haja, the accused in the IS case in Kerala, was familiar with Usman. According to the NIA, Usman was trained in bomb making at the Lashkar-e-Taiba recruitment camp in Pakistan.