IS head-hunter sent Rs 6 lakh to busted cell Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind

NEW DELHI: The self-styled emir or chief of 'Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind', an Islamic State-inspired module busted by the NIA last week, has confessed to having received a Rs 6-lakh money transfer from Mohammad Shafi Armar, a former Indian Mujahideen militant who is now an IS recruiter based in Syria. While Rs 2.37 lakh of the terror fund transferred to emir Mudabbir Mushtaq Shaikh was recovered during the raid at his Mumbra home, a part of it was earlier distributed to at least two IS-inspired youth, of whom one received Rs 50,000 in Lucknow.

"The money was essentially to hold meetings and organise weapons and explosives for possible attacks on vital installations as well as security force personnel. We are verifying the revelations made by Mudabbir, and identifying those to whom the terror money sent across by Shafi Armar was redirected," said a senior officer following the investigations.

Interrogation of the 14 IS-influenced men arrested by the NIA has revealed that Janood-ul-Khalifa, active since April 2015, was modelling itself on the lines of organised terror groups, complete with a central unit, and state and city units. Even its leadership structure was well-defined, with Mudabbir as its emir, Rizwan Ali of Kushinagar, UP, as naib emir; Najmul Huda as military commander, and Mohd Nafees Khan of Hyderabad as finance chief. "Shafi Armar was egging on radicalised youth, some of whom were part of sleeper modules of SIMI/IM, through online forums to plan and execute simultaneous strikes across multiple cities.

But given their limited expertise and training, he eventually came down to asking them to stage individual attacks around their areas of residence," said a home ministry officer.

The planning of terror strikes was backed by intensive efforts to arrange resources and logistics. Frequent meetings were held across Lucknow, Saharanpur, Hyderabad, Tumkur and Pune, etc, to discuss attack plans and how to procure weapons and explosives. These meetings were attended by all or some of the arrested cadres, and also other IS-inspired youth whose identity is still being established.

A home ministry source said Mudabbir had recently travelled to West Bengal to scout for sources of arms, but met with little success. Some of the arrested men have told the investigators that they had travelled to forested areas near Bengaluru, Tumkur and even Lucknow to identify locations for training camps.

The multi-state IS module had links with the Haridawar-Roorkee module busted recently by Delhi Police, and was also in touch with the Malad youth who recently went missing, at least two of whom are suspected to have joined the IS. One of the Malad youth is said to be in Syria, while the location of another is not known.

Sources indicated that the leads thrown up by the interrogation of the arrested accused are being verified and more arrests may follow as the conspiracy unravels.