The National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a charge sheet against a Kashmiri man and a former IM operative along with another accused for alleged links with the Islamic State. The three men were deported from the UAE in January after the UAE authorities alerted India about their online activities in spreading the IS propaganda.
The accused have been identified as Sheikh Azhar ul Islam (24), a resident of Ganderbal in J&K, Adnan Hassan Damoodi (36), resident of Bhatkal in Karnataka and Mohammad Farhan Shaikh (25), resident of Mumbra, Maharashtra.
“The accused were promoting the ideology of IS, inciting others to become members of IS and indulging in terrorist and antinational activities through various Internet platforms like Orkut, Nimbuzz, Google Talk, Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype, Vkontakte, Kik, Twitter, Snapchat, Youtube, Viber, Telegram, Wickr, Surespot, Google drive and telegram,” said an NIA spokesperson.
SeizureThe electronic devices seized from their possession at the time of their arrest included Four laptops, two tablets, seven mobile phones and two pen-drives were seized from them.
“Investigation conducted has brought on record evidence of their incriminating chats, posts, videos, images and comments on Facebook, Whatsapp, Kik, VKontakte and Twitter shared and circulated in groups and channels on various social networking sites, during 2014-15. Investigation also established their association with IS operatives from various countries including India, Australia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Serbia, Sudan, Srilanka, Saudi Arabia, UAE and United Kingdom, who were actively propagating, promoting and inciting people online to join the terrorist outfit,” said the NIA official.
Fund flowThe accused persons in connivance with their associates based in UAE and other countries were also actively involved in receiving, collecting and distributing funds to persons interested to go to Syria to further the activities of the IS using banking channels including and Western Union. These funds were transferred by the accused persons from the UAE to the recipients from Tunisia, Philippines and India. Damoodi had also funded three men from Hyderabad who had attempted twice to flee from India to go to Syria, first from Kolkata in 2014 via Bangladesh and Afghanistan and then from Nagpur to Srinagar, J&K in 2015.
“These accused were also in close contact and association with other accused persons chargesheeted in other NIA cases including Areeb Majeed, Mohammed Sirajuddin, Mohammed Naser and Shafi Armar and shared with them many common online contacts of IS operatives including Karen Aisha al Muslimah and Madmullah,” said the official.
