Four from Kovai summoned by NIA over suspected IS activities

Sources said that the NIA recovered five mobile phones, two laptops and 77 CDs in the raid. The duo was interrogated by the Coimbatore City police for hours, released and again asked to appear before the NIA on Friday. Efforts were on to recover digital footprints from the electronic gadgets recovered from the duo. 

Intelligence unit sources said that two others, Noufal and Abu were also asked to appear before the NIA at Cochin on Friday. Meanwhile, the NIA, in a press release, stated that the search at two places in Coimbatore and at a location in Alappuzha (Kerala) as part of investigations in the IS Omar Al-Hindi module case had led to the arrest of six persons in October 2016. A charge-sheet was filed against them under Sections 120B, 121 and 122 of the IPC  alongside sections 17, 18, 18B, 20, 38, 39 and 40 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

According to the NIA, absconding accused in the case, Shajeer Mangalassery migrated to IS/ Daesh controlled territory in Afghanistan from the UAE in June 2016. He had allegedly faked his online identities as Abu Ayisha and Sameer Ali. He was radicalising youth on the IS/ Daesh ideology and exhorted them to indulge in violent jihad in India. NIA officials said that they had recently come across information regarding a group of youth from Kerala and Tamil Nadu being  in touch with members of the module. Following these developments, the NIA perused the social media accounts of the youths and conducted raids on Thursday. 

The release further stated that during these searches conducted based on warrants issued by the Special NIA Court, Ernakulam, several mobile phones, laptops, hard disks, pen drives, DVDs/ CDs, memory cards, SIM cards and documents such as books and manuscripts were seized at Coimbatore and Alappuzha on Thursday. According to the NIA, one of three persons whose premises were searched has reportedly admitted that he was regularly in contact with Abdul Rashid Abdullah, an accused in another IS related case.