Deported from Sudan, Tamil Nadu techie linked to Jaipur ‘IS backer’
WhatsApp group run by a Filipino woman emerges as the common link
Islamic State member
The 23-years-old software developer from Tamil Nadu who was deported from Sudan while attempting to reach Libya to join the Islamic State, was in touch with the Indian Oil Corporation employee arrested in Jaipur last week for spreading IS propaganda, security sources told The Indian Express.
Sources revealed that Mohammed Naseer, who was working for an IT firm in Dubai, identified IOC marketing manager Mohammed Sirajuddin by his photograph during interrogation after he was deported on December 10. A WhatsApp group called “Islam Q&A” run by a Filipino woman has emerged as a common link between the two, they added.
Based on Naseer’s interrogation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), The Indian Express has pieced together details of how the son of a Dubai-based mechanic struggled with academics even as he was drawn to jihadi ideology, his contact with IS supporters and recruiters, and his journey to Sudan.
Hailing from Thanjavur, Naseer pursued computer engineering at MNM Engineering College in Chennai between 2010 and 2014, when he started visiting a mosque run by the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath, a non-political Islamic organisation. Naseer told interrogators he also attended religious lectures and began to browse the website onlinepj.com that deals with religious issues.
Sources said he also came into contact with some Nigerians who were allegedly proficient in hacking and attended a three-month course on ethical hacking at an institute for a fee of Rs 50,000.
But after Naseer failed to pass two supplementary examinations, sources said, his father, called him over to Dubai on a 90-day visa in October 2014 to search for a job. In December 2014, he joined Takmeel Global in Deira as a web developer and graphic designer on a monthly salary of 2,500 dirhams.
Naseer told interrogators that he was not happy at work and started watching videos of IS propaganda and lectures by Islamic scholars and controversial preachers such as UK-based Anjem Choudary in spare time.
Around the same time, sources said, Naseer came in contact with an IS supporter operating an account using the handle “Dawlah”, who helped him join three pro-IS WhatsApp groups. One of these was “Islam Q&A” run by Karen Aisha Hamidon, who claimed to be from Manila. Also part of this group were Sirajuddin, who was arrested on December 10, a Sharjah resident named Yusha Kashmiri and an Indian named Salman Munabbar.
It was in August 2015 that Naseer, keen to travel to Syria to join IS, began communicating with the Twitter handle ‘Mad Mullah’, a propagandist whose profile message was: “for Hijrah (migration) to Libya, for advice”.
Assuring him accommodation, a job and food in Sudan, Mad Mullah coaxed Naseer to visit Sudan and then travel to Libya, saying he would be the first Indian IS fighter to do so. Mad Mullah emailed a visa for Sudan to Naseer, sources said.
On September 25, Naseer flew to Khartoum on a Flydubai flight, after deleting all his IS-related e-mails, WhatsApp and Telegram accounts. In the Sudanese capital, Naseer was instructed to reach a flat that acted as an IS safe house, where two Egyptians and a Russian, Moroccan and Belgian, all in their early twenties, were already staying.
Naseer also participated in a preliminary training course but was detained on October 5 after Indian agencies informed the Sudanese government about his presence there.
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