IS suspect held in Nellai met Paris attackers in Mosul

Thirty one-year-old Moideen was in Iraq for six months from April 8, 2015, and underwent detailed ‘religious training’ in Mosul followed by combat training which included a course in automated weapons, official sources said.

It was during this period, Moideen claimed, he had met Paris bombers including Abdelhamid Abaaoud and Salah Abdeslam, the sources said. While Abaaoud was killed in retaliatory fire during the Paris theatre attack, Abdelslam is in the custody of French police.

The NIA has informed the French security officials and contacted its Embassy here, the sources said, adding this was done in case it would lend any help in their investigation. They said that French officials could question him as well after getting the requisite court order. According to the multi-country investigation into the French terror strikes, the accused involved in the gruesome killings were in IS-controlled areas at the same time when Moideen was there. 

Moideen was arrested in a crackdown by NIA with the help of central security agencies and other state police, foiling designs of IS operatives to target few judges of Kerala and foreign tourists visiting the coastal state. The accused, radicalised and recruited in IS through social media platforms, had left India for Istanbul from Chennai in April last year on the pretext of performing ‘Umrah’, official sources said. After reaching Istanbul, he crossed over along with other people from Pakistan and Afghanistan to Iraq.