KOCHI: The NIA probing the Islamic State (IS)-related cases in Kerala revealed that Mohammed Azharudeen, who has been accused of recruiting several persons for carrying out attacks in South India, allegedly radicalised several youths at a mosque in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.
The National Investigation Agency revealed the probe details in a report submitted at the Special Court for NIA Cases in Ernakulam opposing the petition filed by Azharudeen and Sheik Hidayathulla alias Firoz Khan, who were arrested on charges of recruiting persons from Kerala and Tamil Nadu for carrying out attacks.
Both Azharudeen and Firoz Khan had moved the petition seeking to dismiss the charges levelled by NIA against them under Section 120B IPC (criminal conspiracy) and Sections 38 and 39 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
The report said Azharudeen was a frequent visitor to Rayan Mosque in Coimbatore, where he also delivered ‘bayans’ from 2013. According to the NIA, it was at this mosque that Azharudeen met the other accused and radicalised them.“Both Azharudeen and Sheik Hidayathulla were radicalised through the material accessed online on extreme Salafi ideology since 2016 and the accused used to hear speeches of radical speakers like Anwar Al Awlaqi, Abu Bara, Moosa Cerantonio, Zahran Hashim of Sri Lanka and others. They also downloaded such material and disseminated contents with other associates,” the NIA report said. It added that Azharudeen was in touch with many Sri Lankan individuals and entities through Facebook and other encrypted social media.
“Speeches and other materials attributed to the Sri Lankan ISIS/Daish leader Zahran Hashim have been
recovered forensically from the digital devices and social media accounts of Azharudeen. The
accused had visited many places in Kerala since 2017, met their associates at various places and conveyed their support to IS,” the report said.
The NIA report said Azharudeen’s Facebook account revealed that Zahran Hashim and Mohammed Noushan were on the friend list, and on March 3, 2019, he had chatted with Mohammed Noushan, who informed Azharudeen that “there is a big plan going on” and that they shouldn’t discuss these matters here, to which Azharudeen replied “yes, we will discuss it somewhere else”.
According to NIA, Mohammed Noushan and Zehran Hashim were leaders of IS in Sri Lanka and they had been the suicide bombers of 2019 Easter day blast at a church in Colombo. “The ‘big plan’ pointed out in the social media extraction had been made soon before the Sri Lankan Easter day blast and this conversation is a strong circumstance pointing out the nexus between the accused Azharudeen and proscribed organisation ISIS world wide,” the NIA report said.