The National Investigation Agency, on Monday, arrested another alleged Islamic State supporter from Chennai, reports TOI. The arrest was a part of a larger probe to bust a group of members and sympathisers of the terrorist/jihadist outfit, plotting terror attacks in the state.
NIA officers arrested 29-year-old Ansar Meeran who hails from Thiruvithankodu, near Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu after one year’s search for the suspect. The accused, who is No. 4 in NIA’s FIR in the ISIS-Tamil Nadu case, was arrested from Poonamallee, Chennai where he had been living in one of the hideouts.
The NIA had in September 2017, arrested another suspected ISIS operative, Shakul Ahamed, in Chennai. The accused, along with 9 others, had allegedly hatched a criminal conspiracy to further activities of the terrorist outfit in the State. The investigative agency had then put out a statement that the case against the 9 alleged jihadists was registered in the NIA station in Delhi.
The conspiracy was underway from 2013 onwards and the accused had formed a terrorist gang which had raised and received funds, organized meetings, recruited and facilitated the travel of some persons to Syria to join the ISIS/ Daesh, the NIA alleged.