Special NIA court awards 7-year jail term to ISIS-inspired terrorist in Kerala

PTI, Jan 10, 2023, 8:41 PM IST

A special NIA court in Kerala on Tuesday sentenced an ISIS-inspired terrorist to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment for planning to carry out attacks on various targets including foreigners in the country, an official said.

Muhammad Polakanni, a resident of Kozhikode, was the ninth accused convicted in the case which was registered suo motu by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on October 1, 2016, a spokesperson of the federal agency said.

The court also imposed fine on the convict.

The official said the ”ISIS Omar Al Hindi” case pertains to the conspiracy and the consequent formation of the ISIS-inspired terrorist module ‘Ansarul Khilafa-KL’ during early 2016 by certain youths from south India with the intention of furthering the objectives of the global terror group.

”The accused persons from Kanakamala in Kannur district had assembled for preparations to carry out terrorist attacks in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, targeting of prominent persons, including judges, police officers and politicians, as also at places of tourist importance where foreigners, especially Jews, congregate,” the spokesperson said.

The official said the agency’s investigation had established that Polakanni, while being abroad, had become a member of the ISIS-inspired terrorist module and actively conspired over social media to conduct terrorist attacks in south India.

He had planned to physically join the ISIS, also known as ”Daish” or Islamic State in Syria, and for that purpose, he had travelled to Georgia from Saudi Arabia in early-2018, the spokesperson said.

The official said he had planned to cross the Georgia-Turkey border to reach Syria and join the ISIS. Polakanni was arrested on September 18, 2020 at the Delhi airport on his arrival from Georgia, the spokesperson said, adding he was convicted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.