On the 28th of April, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted raids at three places allegedly connected with the Islamic State (IS) of the Kasargod module case.
According to multiple sources, a team from the NIA conducted these raids at the residences of Ahamed Arafat and Aboobacker Siddique, in the Kasargod district. The NIA conducted a raid at a third person’s house in Kalkonde, Pallakad as well.
The Kasargod module case came into light in the year 2018, after a bust was carried out by the NIA and 25 year old Habeeb Rehman was arrested. After several investigations were conducted, it was realised there were not just one, but several other people who left to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS.)
“The three persons are suspected to have links with some of the accused persons in the 2016 case,” NIA Inspector General Alok Mittal said. The NIA zeroed in on these three houses after monitoring online activity connected to the ISIS.
A senior NIA officer close to the investigation said, “One of the three was found to be in touch with Abdul Rashid Abdulla alias Abu Isa, a Kozhikode youth who had joined the IS in 2016. We are interrogating them on what, if anything, they were planning to do and who they were in touch with.”
During the course of the raid, NIA confiscated multiple digital devices, SIM cards, memory cards, pen drives and diaries with notes written in Arabic and Malayalam. Apart from these, NIA also confiscated DVDs of Zakir Nair and several other DVDs and CDs with religious speeches.
While no arrests have been made at this point, authorities are still trying to find a connection between these residents of Kerala and the Sri Lanka terror attacks which took place on the 21st of April.
Stay tuned for more updates.
