The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday arrested a 25-year-old man who was absconding in connection with a case of ISIS-inspired youths from Kerala joining the West Asia-based terror group, officials said.
Habeeb Rahman was arrested from Kalpetta Town, Wayanad, in relation to a two-year-old ISIS Kasargod module case. The accused will be produced before a court in Ernakulam on Thursday, the agency informed in a statement.
"The case relates to the criminal conspiracy hatched by the accused persons from Kasargod district of Kerala and their associates since Ramadan, 2015, with the intention of joining and furthering the objectives of ISIS Daish," the statement said.
The case had first come to light in May 2016, when 14 people from Kasargod district in Kerala and some who were working in the Middle East left for Afghanistan and Syria with the intention of joining the ISIS.
The NIA's statement said Nashidul Hamzafar, accused No. 16 in the case, and Habeeb Rehman remained in touch over encrypted social media platforms, with other absconding accused persons in this case like Abdul Rashid Abdulla (accused No. 1) and Ashfak Majeed (accused No. 10).
Nashidul Hamzafar, 26, was deported from Afghanistan to India for questioning in September 19, 2018. This was the first deportation of a terror suspect in any case from Afghanistan. Nashidul was detained by Afghan security agencies last year for illegally entering the country from the Afghanistan-Iran border before reaching Kabul, a report said.
Nashidul is the only ISIS terror recruit from India who spent several months in Afghanistan travelling through several routes and meeting contacts. This made him a goldmine of information for the NIA.
