The alleged Islamic State module based in Kerala, Popular Front India has called the Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, who is already under scanner of the intelligence agencies, a source of inspiration.

A report published in a leading daily states that Manseed alias Omar al-Hindi the chief of IS-linked terror module which was recently by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), has told the investigative agencies that his men were motivated by Zakir Naik’s speeches and his social media posts.

Manseed was working for Popular Front India (PFI) as a part of intelligence wing for 12 years and reporting on activities of Rashtriya Swayamseval Sangh (RSS) and its functionaries in Kerala.

Reports said that Manseed and his men were planning an attack like Nice in France on community events, particularly an all religion-gathering in Kochi. Manseed and his men were even provided Rs. 38,000 from abroad through Western Union to buy a second-hand heavy vehicle to be driven into the crowd, killing and maiming a large number of people, reports said.

Manseed relocated from Kerala to Qatar around eight years ago after PFI expelled him for marrying a girl from Philippines. He was working as a sales executive in Qatar.

From Qatar, while he was following online Jihadi activity, he encountered his Afghanistan-based handler Abu Aysha, who helped him to form a Facebook group ‘Ansur-ul-Khilaaf’ comprising IS-learning youth from Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The module wanted to eliminate three top RSS leaders of Kerala, two Kerala HC judges, with progressive views on Sharia law, rationalists and activists of the Muslim community and Jews in Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu.

The NIA arrested the module of Manseed after tracking them for four to five years after the module procured arms and even traveling to Kodaikanal for targeting Jews, the plan they had to cancel after they met with an accident en route.

By Prajakt K.