NIA arrests IS man planning suicide hit in Kerala; says he followed SL attacker

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday (April 30) arrested an ISIS sympathiser from Kerala, identified as Riyas Aboobacker, 29, on charges of planning a suicide attack in the state, ANI reported.

The NIA made the arrest as part of its investigation into the 2016 Kasargod Islamic State (IS) module case. In 2016, 15 people had disappeared from Kasargod and allegedly migrated to West Asia to join the ISIS.

The agency on April 28 had carried out two raids at Kasargod and one in Palakkad, two northern district in Kerala, in this connection.

During interrogation, Riyas Aboobacker, apprehended from Palakkad, told NIA sleuths that he was a follower of Zahran Hashim, the mastermind of the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka and had been following his videos for more than a year.

Riyas also admitted to following the speeches of Zakir Naik, a radical Islamic preacher who is absconding now. Reports say he has been in contact with Abdul Rashid Abdulla, alias Abu Isa, for a long time and has been following his audio clips where he instigates his followers to carry out an attack in India.

Riyas also confessed that he was in touch with Abdul Khayoom, alias Abu Khalid, accused in the Valapattanam IS case. The Valapattanam case pertains to five youth leaving Kerala to fight for the ISIS in Syria, in 2017.