Tamil Nadu: NIA apprehends merchant over SIM used to contact ISIS

Mangalore Today News Network

Chennai, Oct 06, 2017 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has apprehended a merchant in connection with the sale of a SIM card that was used to contact the terrorist group ISIS, or Islamic State, ANI reported.

 

A Times of India report identified the man as 26-year-old Amir, a mobile store owner from Tamil Nadu’s Mettupalayam with no known criminal record.

Amir was apprehended in Kerala’s Kochi, and interrogated in Mettupalayam, the report said.

Only last month, the NIA arrested a suspected ISIS operative, Shakul Hammed, in Chennai. He allegedly received funds on behalf of the terrorist organisation to establish its presence in the Tamil Nadu capital, and stage attacks in the state.

It was reported in April this year that the NIA was interrogating three youths with alleged links to ISIS - two from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and one from Alappuzha in Kerala.

As for the man who was questioned by the NIA today, the Times of India quoted police as saying he tried to "establish telephone contacts with a few ISIS extremists in Syria."

Amir, whom police have been tracking since March, now needs to re-appear before the NIA on Monday, the report said.


courtesy:IndiaToday