Two women were taken into custody on August 17, Tuesday from their residences in Thana, a commercial suburb in the Kannur city in Kerala by the sleuths of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for allegedly propagating the ideology of Islamic State terror group through social media. The group in which they were active members allegedly propagated IS ideology through a social media platform called Chronicle Foundation, reports said.
Reports from Kannur said the two women Shifa Harris and Mizha Siddeeque had links with Anwar who was arrested by the NIA in March 2021. More arrests have been made from Mangaluru and Bengaluru of people who were allegedly connected to this network that involved spreading messages of the IS.
The NIA officials arrived at the residence of these women around 6 am and after taking them into custody, they were both produced in the court under the online mode. According to local reports, their passports too were seized and they had visited Iran.
Earlier this month, NIA had carried out searches at five locations in Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka connected with Kerala ISIS module case. The case pertains to the terrorist activities of a group led by one Mohammed Ameen alia Abu Yahya of Kerala, IANS had reported. NIA had earlier arrested three people namely Ameen and his associates Mus'Hab Anwar and Rahees Rashid after preliminary examination. The group has been allegedly running various ISIS propaganda channels on different social media platforms such as Telegram, Hoop and Instagram for allegedly propagating the ideology of ISIS, and radicalising and recruiting new members to the module.
In a statement, NIA alleged that Mizha Siddeeque is affiliated with ISIS. “She had travelled to Tehran along with her associates to join ISIS in Syria. On instructions of accused Mohammed Ameen, she had created a page on Instagram to propagate, motivate, radicalise and recruit gullible Muslim youth for ISIS,” the statement said. Meanwhile, the investigation agency further alleged that Shifa Haris alias Ayesha on directions from Mus’Hab Anwar and Mizha, had transferred funds to Mohammad Waqar Lone alias Wilson Kashmiri for supporting ISIS activities.
NIA arrests two ISIS operatives in ISIS Kerala Module Case pic.twitter.com/Grsw9zOy71
— NIA India (@NIA_India) August 17, 2021