One more IS suspect picked up from Nellai

NIA began the operation with the arrest of six terror suspects from Kerala’s northern districts of Kannur and Kozhikode and in the wee hours of Monday, they raided a house at Kadayanallur near Tirunelveli and picked up another man Subhani, hailing from Thodupuzha in Kerala. 

His arrest is yet to be recorded and local police sources told DTNext that the arrest memo is yet to be issued. Furthering the probe, the NIA team later picked up four youth in Coimbatore and they have been interrogated amid tight security in the textile city. 

Intelligence sources told this paper that several more arrests are likely in the case as the module seem to be a large one which has links in Chennai, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli and most parts of Kerala. The NIA team had conducted raids at Kattupakkam and Ramapuram in Chennai where Abu Basheer alias Rashid (29), a native of Ukkadam in Coimbatore, the only Tamilian among the arrested men. Sources said Abu Basheer had been working with a private finance firm in Chennai and the prime intention of his stay in Chennai was to garner ground support for carrying out their terror plans. 

Intelligence sources said that IB had intercepted several cross-border calls made by some of the youth and the conversation suggested procurement of explosives and possible areas that could targeted. IB had been working based on these calls for some time and zeroed in north Kerala, the location of operation.

Officials said NIA had been brought in after IB almost confirmed the involvement of the youth and swooped down on five group members when they were in a meeting at Kanakamala Hilltop in Kannur district. 

Based on the information retrieved through interrogation, NIA then picked up one more youth from Kuttiyadi in Kozhikode, Subhani in Kadayanallur and four others in Coimbatore. In Coimbatore, five youth were interrogated by the NIA the whole day on Monday. Sources said more persons would be brought in for questioning on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police Alok Mittal of the Delhi unit of NIA and Vikram, Superintendent of Police from the Mumbai unit left Coimbatore after questioning the five youth. 

Sources said NIA would be interrogating more persons in Chennai, who worked hand-in-glove with the terror group members.

The group also is suspected to have connections in Telangana and New Delhi. Intelligence sources said that the terror module seemed to have received help from Delhi. The investigation is likely to be extended to Telangana and Karnataka. 

The arrested accused have been identified as Manseed alias Omar Ali Hindi (30) and Aniyaram (both Kannur), Abu Basheer alias Rashid (29) (Ukkadam, Coimbatore), Swalih Mohammed alias Yousuf alias Abu Hasna (26), (Chelakkara, Thrissur), P Safwan (30), (Ponmundam, Malappuram), N K Jasim (25) (Kuttiyadi, Kozhikode) and Ramshad Nageelan Kandiyil alias Aamu (24) (Kuttiyadi). Recently, 20 youth, including some pregnant women from Kerala were confirmed to have joined IS. NIA is already investigating this case. 

Recently, the Internal Security (IS) wing of the TN police had prevented three youth from travelling to Greece and a background check revealed that they were attracted to hard-line Islamism. They were later reportedly de-radicalised.