NIA finds Sri Lanka Easter blast mastermind having links to three IS cases in India
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New Delhi / Coimbatore: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has found in Zahran Hashim, the mastermind behind the April 21 Easter attacks in Sri Lanka, a common link in three Islamic State related cases.
NIA has linked him to the latest IS module busted in Coimbatore, according to a report in The Hindu.
The Coimbatore module reportedly could have ‘more members’ having links with similar module in Kerala.
“The agency had found that Ibrahim Shah, one of the five suspects detained on June 12, was close to Riyas Abubacker of the Kerala module, which had planned to conduct terror attacks there.” says The Hindu report.
Meanwhile searches are on; however, NIA has seized no explosives so far during the searches at the house and office of Muhammed Azharudheen who is the Facebook friend of Zahran Hashim. Hashim was nabbed in Coimbatore on June 12.
Azharudheen had been under surveillance for several months. He previously had run a computer graphics shop, before he turned to travel company.
He was produced before the NIA special court in Kochi on Thursday. The five other suspects: Akram Sindhaa, Y. Shiek Hidayathullah, Abubacker M., Sadham Hussain and Ibrahim Shah would be taken to Kochi.
As well as spreading the ideology of the Islamic State, the accused, said NIA reportedly, were recruiting vulnerable youth to carry out terrorist attacks in South India, particularly in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
