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A FORMER Bahrain resident is being investigated by the Indian authorities for allegedly running an Islamic State (IS) module that aimed to recruit and radicalise individuals through social media platforms.
The Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday raided five locations – three in Indian union territory, Jammu and Kashmir and two in Karnataka – as part of a high-level probe.
Indian media reported that a case has been registered against seven individuals – including the former Bahrain resident Mohammed Ameen alias Abu Yahya from Kerala – under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act. The report identified two other suspects as Mushab Anuvar and Dr Rahees Rashid while four more were not named.
All of them have been accused of being part of a sleeper cell led by Mr Ameen, who was arrested in Delhi in March this year.
“It (the raid) pertains to terrorist activities of Mohammed Ameen, who had returned to India from Bahrain in the wake of the decline of IS caliphate in Syria and Iraq, with a view to creating a local module by radicalising and recruiting vulnerable youths from Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala and Karnataka,” stated a report in the Indian daily Times of India yesterday.
“He had been camping in Delhi for two months before he was arrested in March this year and was reportedly making connections with Jammu and Kashmir-based terror operatives.”
The report adds that Mr Ameen, after his return from Bahrain, visited Kashmir for religious purposes, but allegedly engaged in terrorist acts.
Mr Ameen allegedly raised funds in association with the other accused as part of a bigger conspiracy to kill certain individuals in Kerala and Karnataka.
“The searches on Wednesday were conducted at the premises of the accused who were continuously in touch with Mohammed Ameen and his associations through various channels on encrypted chat platforms and had raised funds for Islamic State activities,” stated the media report.
The GDN reported in May 2019 that Indian officials were investigating their nationals working in Bahrain and other Gulf states who joined or attempted to join Da’esh militants. This followed as details emerged of how a former Bahrain resident made at least three attempts to travel to Syria to join fights for Da’esh or IS.
Shaibu Nihar, 39, a resident of Kozhikode in Kerala, was arrested in 2019 as he arrived in India from Qatar. The NIA questioned him during which he revealed that he and seven other Bahrain residents planned to join Da’esh and were frequent visitors to Al Ansar Centre, a religious education institute in Manama.
The controversial centre was shut down after news of Da’esh sympathisers frequenting it came to light. Indian intelligence agencies in 2017 announced that four of the five Indians killed fighting for the IS in Syria were former Bahrain residents.
The fighters were identified – Sibi from Palakkad district in Kerala, Muhadis from Malappuram district, Mansoor (Senior), Mansoor(Junior) and Shanad.
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