Did notorious Shafi Armar recruit Hyderabad ISIS cell?

Bengaluru: Is Shafi Armar alias Yusuf-al-Hindi from Bhatkal, who was said to have been killed in drone strike by US in Syria in April this year, behind the alleged ISIS module, which was busted in Hyderabad on June 29 by the NIA and the local police?

Though the NIA remained tightlipped about the handler and mentor of the five accused, according to sources, Shafi could be the man, who recruited and radicalised them online for executing terror strikes in Hyderabad during the holy month of Ramzan and the forthcoming Eid.

“It is either Shafi or someone else using his name for ISIS online recruitment in India. He could be the “saheb,” who they (the accused) were referring to in their initial interrogation,” said an officer on condition of anonymity.

“Their custodial interrogation may throw some light on the module; their handler; their finances and the targets,” the officer added.

There were widespread reports in the media that Shafi was killed in a US drone strike, but none of the agencies had confirmed his death.

Shafi’s family had also dismissed the report of his death. His elder brother Abdul Khadir Sultan Armar was the blue-eyed boy of Abu Baqr al Baghdadi, who had anointed him and appointed him to head the militant jihadist group,

Ansar al-Tawhid fi Bilad al Hind (AuT) to invite Indian Muslims to train at jihad camps in North Waziristan in Pakistan. Sultan was killed in March last year.