SSI Wilson murder: Man held for sheltering accused

The arrested person was identified as Hussain Sherif. The police remanded him judicial custody after producing him before a magistrate in Egmore.

Wilson was shot and stabbed to death by suspected IS operatives – Abdul Shameem and Thofeeq – on January 8 night at a check post on Kerala-Tamil Nadu border in Kanyakumari. The incident happened a day after the Tamil Nadu police arrested three members of IS modules from Bengaluru. The murder is believed to be a retaliation by the terror group against the crackdown.

A day after Wilson’s murder, the Delhi police had arrested Khaja Moideeen, a self-styled head of the TN IS, and his associates – Syed Ali Nawaz and Abdul Samad – for conspiring to trigger a terror attack in the National Capital Region. Five days later, Wilson’s killers were nabbed from Udupi.

Of the arrested terror elements, Khaja Moideen, Abdul Shameem and Syed Ali Nawaz are suspects in the 2014 murder of Hindu Munnani activist KP Suresh Kumar. Khaja Moideen is also said to be the person who brain-washed and send the first Indian (Haja Fakrudin) to Syria for jihad. Khaja Moideen was booked by the NIA for his IS activities.

As the police teams in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka are hunting for all those who are linked to the arrested terror suspects, intelligence agencies believe that Khaja Moideen was just the operational head of IS in Tamil Nadu and he has a handler abroad. It is said that he was communicating with the handler using a message encrypting software installed on a laptop.