Vicky Nanjappa

In a bid to issue a red corner alert against one of India’s most dangerous recruiters, Sultan Ahmed Armar, the National Investigation Agency has decided to file cases against both the Al-Qaeda and the ISIS. The NIA has made a request to the Home Ministry seeking a consent to go ahead and file cases against the likes of Armar as this becomes mandatory in order to seek an extradition.

The NIA decided to file cases against the Al-Qaeda and the ISIS as most of the operatives running their shop in India are based out of the country. The name of Armar in particular has cropped up several times during the probe. They found his name cropping up in the case of Haja Fakrruddin, the recruitment of the youth from Rajasthan, Hyderabad and also Kalyan.

The NIA has information that Armar is currently based in Sharjah and he was in touch with all the youth who intended to join the ISIS. While his first round of recruitments were conducted from Tamil Nadu and he used the Singapore route, the latest round of talks he had with possible recruits points to a Bangladesh link.  The youth who called on him were told to make their own arrangments and reach Kolkata. He had told the youth that they would be taken to Bangladesh and then provided a safe exit into Iraq and Syria.

The NIA is looking at Armar’s role very closely and say that he is currently part of the Ansar-ul-Tawhid a front which combines the Indian Mujahideen, Tehrik-e-Taliban and the ISIS.  An NIA official said that there is ample intelligence to suggest that Armar is in Sharjah but unless we have a case filed we cannot seek his extradition. Currently a red corner alert is being issued against him as we feel that this man could recruit more youth from India. The NIA has also been looking at the new recruitments for the Al-Qaeda’s India outfit. A similar modus operandi is being used to rope in Indian youth the NIA says.