Popular Front of India (PFI) has been extensively using social media for recruiting youths for anti-national activities. One of the modules of the now-banned outfit even had prepared to attack foreigners, especially Jews visiting Vattakkanal, a hill station in Tamil Nadu. PFI members or those attracted to global terror group ISIS had also conspired to attack judges, senior police officers and Muslims belonging to Ahmediya sect.
The module was accused of engaging in a criminal conspiracy to wage war against the government by gathering explosives and other offensive items to target significant individuals and locations of public importance, according to the officials. They added that the affiliates used various internet-based platforms (both surface and deep web) for spreading ISIS ideology. The module, Ansar-ul-Khilafa Kerala, was also engaged in a covert campaign to recruit, inspire, and radicalise Muslim adolescents to join ISIS/ISIL. On October 2, 2016, as they were holding a conspiracy meeting, five suspects were detained in Kerala’s Kannur district.
Custodial interrogation revealed that the accused had connected with a co-conspirator using social media platforms like Facebook, Telegram, etc. to allegedly conduct a war against the government. Swalith Mohammed, one of the accused, revealed that his colleagues in the UAE had provided him with money to serve as funding for their actions. The Gate, Bab Al Noor, Play Ground, and other groups were among the several Telegram channels they had set up, according to the officials.
Every year, hundreds of Israeli teenagers leave their mandatory military service and travel to the small, picturesque hill station of Vattakkanal in Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul district for a holiday. The NIA’s investigations have shown that one Shajahan, a resident of Kerala who was working for the ISIS terror network in India, had previously been to Turkey and/or Syria for allegedly engaging in terrorism and was expelled from both countries. He interacted with PFI leaders like Haris, Shabeer, Manaf, Mustafa, Sadik, and Shajil.
In 2008, he regularly attended PFI meetings where crimes committed against Muslims by ‘non-believers’ in India and other countries were discussed. Shameer inspired Shajahan to embark on a ‘hijra’ in accordance with Hadis and the Quran in order to engage in jihad after Abu Bakar Bagdadi of ISIS declared a caliphate. One Rasheed met Shajahan in Malaysia, and the two travelled together from Malaysia to Iran.
They claimed that Shajil, his family, and Midlaj travelled from Mangalore via Dubai and Iran to join this group before continuing on to Istanbul, Turkey. Abdul Manaf joined this gang in Turkey. In October 2016, he travelled to Malaysia on the way to his eventual destination of Syria with his wife and two sons. when in February 2017 when he and Abdul Manaf attempted to cross over to Syria, Turkey apprehended them and deported them.
According to officials, Abdul Shajahan intended to go on the ‘hijra’ journey to Syria with Abdul Khayoom and Abdul Razak. Nevertheless, Abdul Manaf was caught in Turkey when he managed to cross the border. In order to apply for an Indian passport, he used a false name that he had procured, that of Mohammed Ismail Mohideen. The group was detained in Turkey and sent back to India on July 1, 2017.
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