A Kochi court on Friday found an Indian national trained by ISIS in Iraq in 2015 guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy to wage war against the Indian and Iraqi governments.
Subahani Haja Moideen, a resident of Kerala and the kingpin of ISIS activities in South India, was arrested in 2016 from Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district in connection with the bust of an ISIS terror cell that was planning to carry out attacks at public places and eliminate certain prominent personalities.
Moideen is convicted under IPC Sections 120(B) (Criminal Conspiracy), Section 125 (waging war against Asiatic power in alliance with the Government of India) and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Section 20 (Punishment for being a member of terrorist gang or organisation). The Special Court also held him guilty under Section 38 (Offence relating to membership of a terrorist organisation) and 39 (Offence relating to support given to a terrorist organisation).
The court will announce the quantum of punishment to Moideen on Monday.
ISIS-module busted in Kerala and Tamil Nadu led to the arrest of Subahani Haja Moideen
Subahani was arrested on October 3, 2016, by the National Investigation Agency after police busted an ISIS-inspired module and arrested 6 people from Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The youth arrested were reportedly collecting explosive to execute their nefarious designs in India.
Five of them were arrested while conducting a meeting Kanakamala hilltop, Kannur District, Kerala. The sixth accused was arrested from Kuttiyadi in Kozhikode district. Those arrested were identified as Manseed alias Omar Al Hindi (30), a resident of Kannur, Abu Basheer alias Rashid (29) from Coimbatore, Swalih Mohammed T alias Yousuf (26) from Thrissur, Safwan P (30) from Mallapuram Kerala, Jasim NK (25) alias Kozhikode and Ramshad Nageelan Kandiyil alias Aaamu (24) from Kozhikode.
The police secured vital information from the arrested youth that led to the arrest of Moideen from Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district. He had fled to Tamil Nadu from Kerala after the National Investigation Agency arrested 6 of his associates for having suspected links to ISIS.
Subahani knowingly and intentionally became the member of ISIS
During the interrogation, Moideen confessed of having served in Iraq for the Islamic State. He said that he was radicalised and indoctrinated on social media following which he told his parents and wife of going to perform Umrah. However, he went to Istanbul instead and crossed over into the ISIS-controlled region of Iraq to fight for the terror outfit.
Subahani joined that ISIS and waged a war against the Government of Iraq, an Asiatic country having ties with India. It is for this reason that NIA invoked Section 125 of the IPC against the terrorist, which is a very rarely invoked section that deals with waging war against an Asiatic country.
ISIS terrorist Subahani had got training in using lethal weapons such as the Russian-made heavy machine gun called Dushka and grenade launchers. He was among the few Indians to have gotten tough battle training in Iraq to wage Jihad.
However, he told his ISIS handlers of he could not cope with the gruesome nature of terrorism in Iraq after he saw two of his friends reduced to ashes in a shell attack. He was jailed for deserting ISIS and remained incarcerated for 55 days. Subahani was subsequently transferred to Turkey from where he contacted his family with the help of Indian consulate.
Once he was back in India and settled, he once again contacted ISIS handlers over the Internet and was planning to carry out attacks in India. He was tasked with the responsibility of building the ISIS terror cell and spreading the terror network of the organisation in the Indian subcontinent. He was planning to collect explosives and precursor chemicals from Sivakasi to conduct the attacks but was arrested by the NIA just in the nick of time.
