A FORMER Bahrain resident has been sentenced to five years in jail by a court in Kerala, India, for joining the Islamic State terrorist outfit.
A special National Investigation Agency court announced the conviction of Shaibu Nihar aka Abu Mariyam in a statement.
“Investigations had established that the accused, Shaibu Nihar, had raised funds with the intention of furthering the activities of Daesh and provided the same to co-accused for their intended travel to Syria,” said the statement.
The GDN reported in 2019 on how the former Bahrain resident made at least three attempts to travel to Syria to join fights by Daesh.
He was arrested in 2019 as he arrived in India from Qatar, and was wanted by Indian authorities since 2017 based on disclosures made by a man named Hamsa UK, also known as Taliban Hamsa, who was believed to be a key terrorist handler.
The NIA during the questioning revealed that he and seven other Bahrain residents planned to join Daesh and were frequent visitors to Al Ansar Centre, a religious education institute in Manama.
The controversial centre was shut down after news of Daesh sympathisers frequenting it came to light.
&uuid=(email))