NIA arrests Palakkad resident for planning suicide attack in Kerala

NEW DELHI: The NIA on Monday arrested Riyas Aboobacker, a resident of Palakkad in Kerala, for being in touch with some members of an Islamic State-inspired module from Kasargod and planning to carry out a suicide attack in the state.
During his questioning by NIA, Aboobacker said he had been following speeches and videos of Sri Lankan bomber Zahran Hashim for more than a year, besides the speeches of Salafi preacher Zakir Naik.
Earlier, the NIA had come across videos of Hashim's jihad-inspiring speeches from computer resources seized during raids at the premises of six accused in the IS Coimbatore module case. The module was allegedly planning to attack Hindu leaders in Tamil Nadu.
Aboobacker's arrest follows raids at his residence in Palakkad as well as of two other suspects in Kasargod. The raids followed inputs that a group of four persons had been in contact with IS Kasargod module accused Abdul Rashid Abdulla, Ashfaq Majeed, Abdul Khayoom etc who had migrated to Afghanistan and Syria. Three group members have been interrogated for their IS links and their plans.
During interrogation, Aboobacker disclosed that he had been in online contact with absconding accused Abdul Rashid Abdulla alias Abu Isa for a long time and had been following his audio clips, including the clip which he had circulated on social media instigating others to carry out terror attacks in India. He told his interrogators that he had online chats with Abdul Khayoom alias Abu Khalid, an accused in Valapattanam IS case who was believed to be in Syria. He further said that he had been following speeches/videos of Zahran Hashim and Zakir Naik. He admitted that he wanted to carry out a suicide attack in Kerala.
The IS Kasargod case was registered in July 2016 following the disappearance of 15 youths from Kasargod and their subsequent migration to join the IS (14 persons to Afghanistan and one to Syria).
Aboobacker will be produced before the NIA court in Kochi on Tuesday.