NIA arrests Kerala resident Shaibu Nihar for propagating ISIS ideology

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested 39-year-old Shaibu Nihar, a resident of Kerala's Kozhikode, in connection with the ISIS Wandoor case on his arrival at the Calicut airport from Doha in Qatar on Tuesday. The accused was produced before the Special Court for NIA cases at Ernakulam and was sent to the judicial custody till April 22.    

The ISIS Wandoor case was registered following a confessional statement by Hamsa UK alias Taliban Hamsa alias Biriyani Hamsa, an accused in the Valapattanam ISIS case in November 2017 regarding several people who had migrated to Syria for joining the ISIS. The NIA had taken over the probe into the Wandoor case last year. Nihar, Mansoor of Kondotty, Mansoor of Vadakara, Shahnad of Kannur, Fajid Hamsa of Koilandy, Ashraf Moulavi of Vaniyambalam, Safeer Rahman of Perumbavoor, and Muhadis of Vaniyambalam are the accused in the case.

Nihar had planned to travel to Syria to join the proscribed terrorist organisation Islamic State (ISIS) in December, 2016, from Bahrain while running an advertising company there. During 2016-2017, he had facilitated travel of some of his associates to Syria with the intention of joining the ISIS and waging war on its behalf against Syrian government, the NIA said in a statement. 

"Following the arrest of some of his associates in October, 2017, Nihar had shifted from Bahrain and taken shelter in Qatar and continued his advertising company there," it said.