Suspected ISIS terrorist Shakul Hammed arrested for staging terror plot in Tamil Nadu: NIA

Chennai, September 19: One of the Chennai residents also the suspected ISIS operative Shakul Hammed was arrested by the National Investigation Agency in a connection with staging terror attacks in parts of Tamil Nadu. Shakul Hammed was arrested for allegedly receiving funds on behalf of ISIS to stage attacks in several parts of Tamil Nadu. 

Shakul Hammed is one among the nine accused who had plans to stage attacks. NIA this year had registered a case against the nine accused at the NIA police station in Delhi on January 26. They are Haja Fakkrudeen (Cuddalore), Khaja Moideen (Cuddalore), Shakul Hameed (Chennai), Ansar Meeran (Chennai), Masood Asarudeen (Tirunelveli), Sadiq Basha (Nagapattinam), Mohammad Sayed Abu Thahir (Karur) and Mohammed Thabraze (Chennai).

“The accused people and their associates, with the intention of furthering the activities of the banned terrorist organisation Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)/Daesh, had hatched a criminal conspiracy from 2013 onwards and formed a terrorist gang which had raised and received funds, organised meetings, recruited and facilitated the travel of some persons to Syria to join the ISIS/ Daesh,” the statement said.

The investigation had revealed that main accused Haja Fakkurudeen, a Singaporean citizen of Indian origin and native of the Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu, joined the IS in Syria in January 2014, along with his family, the NIA said. Fakkurudeen had visited India twice between November 2013 and January 2014, when he had conspiracy meetings along with co-accused Khaja Moideen, Shakul Hameed and others at various places in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with the intention of recruiting more people into the IS, it said.

Also Shakul Hameed had attempted to migrate to IS-controlled territory in Syria in August, 2015 through Turkey, where he was intercepted by Turkish authorities and deported to India, it added. He would be produced before the NIA special court in Chennai, the statement said.