NIA court frames charges against six alleged Islamic State members for terrorist activities in South India

New Delhi: A court in Kerala has framed charges against six youths, alleged to be Islamic State terrorists, for trying to carry out terrorist activities in parts of southern India, according to an official statement issued Tuesday.

A suo motu case was registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on 1 October, 2016, based on information regarding activities of some youths, who had the intention of furthering the objectives of the proscribed terrorist group in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the NIA said in a statement.

The youths “had got together and formed an Islamic State terror module named Ansarul Khilafa-KL over social media platforms and had made preparations to carry out terrorist attacks against prominent persons, including judges, police officers and politicians, and also against foreign nationals and rationalists,” it said.

The probe agency arrested six members of the terror module on 1 October, 2016, when they had organised a meeting at Kanakamala in Kannur district of Kerala, it said. Subsequently, another member of the module was arrested in February 2017, after his deportation from the UAE.

In this case, on 5 October, 2016, the NIA also arrested Islamic State operative Subahani Haja Moideen alias Abu Jasmine, who had travelled to Iraq and Syria in April 2015 and fought for the Islamic State, the NIA said. Moideen returned to India in September 2015 and continued his activities in support of the organisation in India, it said.

The NIA filed a charge sheet against Manseed Muhmood, Swalih Mohammed, Rashid Ali, Rashad NK, Safvan, Jasim NK, and Shajeer Mangalassery under various sections of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Indian Penal Code (IPC) on 29 March, 2017. A separate charge sheet was filed against Moideen under these Acts on the same day. A supplementary charge sheet was filed against accused Moinudheen PK under the UAPA and the IPC in August last year.

Now the special NIA court in Ernakulam on Monday framed charges against Manseed Muhmood, Swalih Mohammed, Rashid Ali, Rashad NK, Safvan and Jasim NK, the NIA said.  The case has been posted to Thursday for framing of charges against Subahani Haja Moideen and for finalizing the trial schedule, it said.

The regular trial of the case is expected to commence from 26 September, 2018, the probe agency said.