Karnataka: Shafi Armar joins global hall of infamy

Bengaluru: After being termed a specially designated global terrorist (SGTD) by the US on Thursday for being the chief recruiter of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in India, Shafi Armar has not only dragged Karnataka onto the global map of terrorism, but also shares space in the hall of infamy with India’s most wanted fugitive terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, who was long declared as an SGTD by America and is on their sanctions list.

Mohammed Shafi Armar aka Anjan Bhai aka Chotey Maula aka Yusuf al Hindi is originally a resident of Haji Manzil, Nawayat Colony in Bhatkal in coastal Karnataka. He fled India four years ago to Pakistan and joined hands with his mentors and co-founders of the proscribed terrorist organisation – Indian Mujahideen (IM), Riyaz and Iqbal Shahbandari aka Bhatkal. Following wide-scale arrests of IM members, including IM’s India commander Mohammed Ahmed Sidibapa aka Yasin Bhatkal from Indo-Nepal border in Bihar in August 2013, and the growing differences between Armar and Shahbandaris on funding and operative strategies, Armar migrated to Afghanistan to be with his elder brother Abdul Khadir Sultan Armar, who was anointed as the emir by ISIS founder Abu Baqr al Baghdadi on Al Isabah – the ISIS media website. Sultan was heading the Ansar-ul-Tawhid, which comprised ISIS, IM and a faction of Tehreik-e-Taliban Pakistan cadres, and was operating from a camp in North Waziristan.

Sultan was killed in March 2015 in the battle of Kobane in Syria and Baghadadi paid homage to the ‘martyr/on the organisation’s website.

“His brother’s death further hardened Shafi, who along with Sultan was schooled in the hardline Wahabi ideology at a famed seminary in North India. He started the online recruitment of Indian youth for ISIS. He fell under the radar of the Indian Intelligence agencies after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) busted the ISIS modules in Hyderabad, New Delhi, Rajasthan and Mumbai and arrested several youth, who allegedly confessed to being hired online by Shafi’s alias. “He used to introduce himself by his various aliases and brainwashed the new recruits in believing that jehad was their sole objective and ISIS was the only way to their destination. In a video released by the ISIS in 2016, the organisation boasted of making inroads into India. Fahad Tanvir Sheikh was one of the first Indian youths, who are known to have joined the ISIS in Syria. In July last year, the NIA in its supplementary chargesheet in RC-14/2015/NIA/DLI accused Yusuf al Hindi alias Shafi Armar alias Anjan Bhai (A-19) along with 15 other alleged ISIS suspects, including six from Karnataka, for hatching a conspiracy to “recruit Muslim youths to work for ISIS” and execute terror attacks in the country by setting up ‘Junood-ul-Khilafat-Hind’ (a group seeking to establish Caliphate in India) at the “behest of Yusuf al Hindi alias Shafi Armar, who is based in Syria and is purportedly the media chief of ISIS,” said an official spokesperson. The NIA has chargesheeted Shafi in three cases with one relating to the IM.

Though there is no official confirmation on Shafi’s location he is said to be operating from Raqqa in Syria. His brother, ailing mother and wife continue to live in Bhatkal.