KOCHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Kerala Police will question both Mohammed Azharuddin and Rashid Ali, the two suspected Islamic State activists who are currently in a prison in the state. Both of them will be questioned for their alleged links with the Coimbatore car blast case. The alleged involvement of the duo in the blast case propped up when one of the arrested in the case – Firoz Ismail — told investigators that he had been to the prison in Kerala to meet the two before the blast.
Sources said Firoz’s statement had warranted NIA to collect more details from the duo in connection with Coimbatore blast case. The state police had already collected the details of the persons who had visited the two at the central jail in Viyyur.
“The NIA is coordinating with the state police to collect certain details from the prison,” said an officer. The NIA had to go through the court to question the two in connection with the case. The state intelligence, which has been coordinating with the Tamil Nadu Police, has already collected the details of those who had visited both Rashid Ali and Azharuddin in the jail.
Rashid Ali of Coimbatore was sentenced to serve jail term by the Special Court for National Investigation Agency (NIA) cases in the Kanakamala Islamic State module case. The court found him guilty after the NIA accused him of plotting terror attacks across Kerala and neighbouring states along with the other accused. The case came to light in October 2016 when the NIA raided a clandestine meeting held by members of an IS-inspired terror module at Kanakamala in Kannur district and took the participants into custody.
Rashid was the third accused in the case. Mohammed Azharuddin landed in jail after he was nabbed by NIA alleging that he was the leader of an IS-backed terror module operating in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
NIA accused Azharuddin of being in touch with Sri Lanka Easter blast suicide bomber Zahran Hashim through Facebook.
NIA alleged that Azharuddin had plans to carry out terror attacks in Kerala and Tamil Nadu and he was propagating ISIS ideology through his Facebook page, KhilafaGFX.