Arrested Subahani served in Mosul, was trained by IS

Subahani was produced before the Ernakulam special magistrate and was remanded to judicial custody. NIA will be moving a petition seeking his police custody for further interrogation on Friday. NIA sources here revealed that Subahani had undergone combat training in Mosul in Iraq, which is under the custody of international terrorist organisation IS. 

After the training, which included training in automatic weapons, Subahani was taken to the war zone in Mosul for security duty in IS- held territory, NIA officials said. He was also paid a monthly allowance of $100 by IS for performing his duty. 

Subahani, who hailed from Thodupuzha in Kerala, had left for Iraq on April 8 last year to join the IS and fight for the organisation. He had lied to his family that he was going to attend Umrah.

He decided to return home, unable to tolerate IS brutality in Mosul, where he saw two of his fellow fighters being charred to death in a shell attack.

But when he expressed a desire to leave Mosul, he was imprisoned and tortured by the IS. But for reasons unknown, Subahani was released from their custody and he stayed in Istanbul illegally for two weeks. Later with the help of the Indian embassy there, he managed to return to India on September 22 last year. 

Subahani was believed to have been plotting to target a few judges of Kerala and foreign tourists visiting the coastal state. Subahani was under watch of the security agencies and when he was giving shape to the plans to carry out the terror attacks in Kerala, NIA arrested him soon after, sources said. 

Subahani is said to be the only Indian who got hardened battle training in Mosul in Iraq, they said. In a statement, the NIA said that the accused had conspired to carry out terror activities in the country and was planning to collect chemical explosives from cracker manufacturers in TN.