National Investigation Agency team in Lanka to probe ISIS module link with blasts
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) team has been camping in Colombo since May 28 to gather evidence on whether the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) module that they have busted in India has any links in common with the suicide squad in Sri Lanka. This squad was behind the serial terror attacks on churches and star hotels in the island country on Easter.
An officer of the rank of Inspector General of Police is leading the NIA team to Colombo with dossiers on some of the arrested ISIS suspects and the radical outfits that may be of interest in the twin investigations led by the Sri Lankan police and the NIA.
The dossier on Riyas A alias Riyas Aboobacker alias Abu Dujana (29), a resident of Palakkad in Kerala in the ISIS case for conspiring to execute a suicide attack in Kerala is of importance for two reasons.
“Riyas had reportedly told the NIA officers that he was inspired online by Zahran Hashim — the Sri Lankan, who had led the death squad in the Easter bombings, which had claimed the lives of 253 people and injured more than 500 people and that he was planning to execute a suicide attack in Kerala on the lines of Sri Lanka terror attack,” an official source said.
The NIA team is also reportedly carrying the itinerary of the two brothers and Sri Lankan suicide bombers Ilham Ahmed Mohammad Ebrahim and Inshaf Ahmed, who had led the fidayeen attacks in Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand Hotel on Easter morning. The duo had visited India in 2012 on business visa and had travelled to Bengaluru, Kochi, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi on their valid passports for business related work.
“They had not participated in any kind of training here as has been alleged by the Sri Lankan Army Chief Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake,” sources on condition of anonymity had earlier told TNIE.
The official delegation will reportedly share the details of a 2017 chargesheet of the two alleged ISIS suspects from Gujarat, who according to a media report, were allegedly radicalised by a Sri Lankan software engineer on social media platforms.
The latter has been arrested for allegedly providing technical and logistic support to the April 21 bombers.
The NIA has so far arrested more than 100 people from across the country for alleged involvement in ISIS related cases.
It was on NIA’s input that the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) had cautioned the island country of possible terror attacks by ISIS on churches, public places and the Indian High Commission in Colombo.
Source: NIE
