India has asked Singapore to provide details of a 39-year-old man, who went to Syria with his family in January 2014, and continued to motivate and recruit men in Tamil Nadu to fight for the Islamic State.
The accused identified as Haja Fakkurudeen, a Singapore citizen, originally from Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu, has figured several times in police records in investigations of young men inclined towards the Islamist organisation.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has sent a request to Singapore under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty for information on Fakkurudeen. The agency has also requested the Interpol to issue a Red Notice against him.
On September 21, the NIA arrested two people — Khaja Moideen alias Abdullah Muthalif and Shakul Hameed — who were allegedly recruited and motivated by Fakkurudeen. Moideen, who has several cases registered against him was in jail when the NIA arrested him in the said case. Hameed was deported from Turkey in 2015 after he was intercepted by Turkish authorities when he was trying to cross over into the IS controlled territory in Syria.
Though nine suspects including Fakkurudeen were under watch since Hameed was deported, the NIA suo motu registered a case on January 26.
As per Moideen’s interrogation report accessed by The Hindu , Fakkurudeen who had migrated to Singapore, used to visit Tamil Nadu frequently and discussed about developments in Syria as early as November 2013. The first known case of Indian men travelling to Syria was in May 2014 when four men from Kalyan in Maharashtra left India to fight for the militant group. One of them- Areeb Majeed returned the same year and is presently in jail.
Moideen is learnt to have told NIA that he discouraged Fakkurudeen from travelling to Syria. “Fakkurudeen used to say that India and Singapore are not good for Muslims as the true and pure Islamic practices cannot be followed here. He went to Syria in November 2013 but returned as he couldn’t cross over. When he discussed about his intention to go to Syria again, I discouraged by stating that fight in Syria is between Shia and Sunnis and we should not support anyone as it was the creation of westerners,” Moideen told the NIA. Moideen’s grandfather who was a Hindu converted to Islam.
Hameed told interrogators that he joined the Popular Front of India (PFI) in 2012 and met Fakkurudeen in 2013. “Fakkurudeen asked me to get a business visa to Turkey as it was easy. He asked me to visit Sulaimaniya Masjid in Istanbul where I would meet people who could help me cross over to Syria. He told me he had come back as there were not enough amenities there but would go back. He asked me to identify Muslim youth who would be interested in joining the IS,” Hameed said.
Hameed says he finally got a visa for Turkey in August 2015 by preparing fake business letterheads. “I was detained by immigration authorities at Bangalore airport but I convinced them I was going to Turkey for a business deal. They let me go. As a precautionary step I had also availed a Malaysian visa to prove that I was on a genuine business trip,” Hameed said. Hameed said that on Fakkurudeen’s advice he went to the mosque in Istanbul and met a German national who said he was waiting there for 20 days to cross over to Syria. He got in touch with a handler who took him to the Syrian border. “We stayed near the border for seven-eight days but the day we were supposed to cross over to Syria, we were intercepted by Turkish authorities and sent back. Belgians and Germans were also with us,” Hameed said.
Fakkurudeen had visited India twice between November, 2013 and January, 2014, when he had had conspiracy meetings along with co-accused Moideen and Hameed and others at various places in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with the intention of recruiting more people into the IS, an NIA official said.
