Kerala: On the basis of suspicion the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested a man from Kerala has admitted to be following Sri Lankan bomber Zahran Hashim.
The Sri Lankan priest behind attacks in Colombo has radicalised several Indian youths in different parts of South India. The accused identified as Riyas A alias Riyas Aboobacker (29), a native of Palakkad in Kerala.
During the interrogation he revealed that he has been following speeches and videos of Zahran Hashim of Sri Lanka for more than a year and has also followed the speeches of Zakir Naik. He confessed that he wanted to carry out a suicide attack in Kerala.
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On the arrest of Riyas the NIA said, “Riyas has been in online contact with absconding accused Abdul Rashid Abdulla for a long time and has been following his audio clips including the clip which he had circulated on social media platform instigating others to carryout terror attacks in India. He revealed that he was also having online chat with Abdul Khayoom Abu Khalid,who was believed to be in Syria.”
Riyas also tried to recruit others in the form of jihadi and carry out an attack in Kerala as he is well versed in Tamil and followed Hashim speeches. However, he failed to convince as the people did not know Tamil.