NIA files charge sheet against two ISIS suspects from Kerala

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a charge sheet against two suspected ISIS operatives from Kerala.

The charge cheet names Abdul Rashid Abdulla as the main accused, who motivated a number of youths from Kasaragod to exit India along with their families to join the Islamic State, and Yasmeen Mohammed Zahid who was intercepted while trying to take a flight to Kabul to join ISIS in Afghanistan.

The agency in a statement said the case relates to the criminal conspiracy hatched within and outside India by certain youths, originally hailing from Kasaragod district of Kerala, with the intention of furthering the objectives of ISIS and their pursuant exit from India along with their families for joining and supporting the terror organisation.

The case was “originally registered as FIR 534/2016 at Chandera police station in Kerala’s Kasaragod district under Section 57 of the Kerala Police Act and sections 38 and 39 of the UA(P) Act.

“It was re-registered at NIA police station, Kochi, on August 24, 2016,” it said.

A probe by the NIA has established that Abdul Rashid Abdulla was the main conspirator who motivated a number of youths from Kasaragod to leave India along with their families to join the Islamic State.

He held classes at Kasaragod and other places in support of the terrorist organisation and “its ideology of violent jihad”, the agency said.

Abdulla motivated one more set of 14 co-conspirators, including another arrested accused Yasmeen Mohammed Zahid, to join the proscribed organisation and plan for “Hijrah to the Caliphate” announced by the ISIS, it said.

The NIA said the probe revealed that the conspiracy had been in operation since July, 2015.

It said Zahid was intercepted at the New Delhi International Airport on July 30 last year when she was trying to exit India for Kabul alongwith her minor child to join her co-conspirator Abdulla in the territory under the control of ISIS in Afghanistan.

The probe has established that Abdulla had raised funds for the ISIS and transferred the money to Yasmeen, who utilised it for her activities with the intention of supporting the terrorist organisation, the statement said.