NIA court sends to jail man held for 'conspiring' to launch suicide attack in Kerala

A court here Tuesday remanded to judicial custody till May 29 a man arrested by the National Investigation Agency on the charge of conspiring to carry out a suicide attack in Kerala.

The NIA court remanded Palakkad-based Riyas A, 29, also known as Riyas Aboobacker or Abu Dujana and a follower of Sri Lankan Easter bombing mastermind Zahran Hashim, when he was produced by the agency.

It posted to May 6 an application filed by the NIA seeking five-day custody of Riyas, who was arrested Monday after he was picked up on Sunday in connection with an ISIS module case.

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According to the NIA, during interrogation soon after he was taken into custody, Riyas had disclosed that he had been following speeches and videos of Hashim for more than a year.

He also allegedly followed the speeches of controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik.

He admitted that he wanted to carry out a suicide attack in Kerala, an NIA spokesperson said Monday.

Riyas had also disclosed he had been in online contact with absconding accused Abdul Rashid Abdulla, aka Abu Isa, for a long time and has been following his audio clips, including the clip which he had circulated on social media, instigating others to carry out terror attacks in India.

He revealed he was also chatted online with Abdul Khayoom, aka Abu Khalid, (accused in Valapattanam ISIS case) who was believed to be in Syria.

The NIA had earlier received inputs that a group of four people has been in contact with some of the accused, including Abdul Rashid, Ashfaq Majeed and Abdul Khayoom, who had already migrated to Afghanistan and Syria.

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After verification, the NIA carried out searches at three places (two in Kasaragod and one in Palakkad District) on Sunday.

Three group members were interrogated for their ISIS links and their plans.

The Kasargod ISIS module case was registered in July 2016 following the disappearance of 15 youths from Kasargod and their subsequent migration to ISIS (14 people to Afghanistan and one person to Syria).