Kerala, which has become a hotbed for Islamic jihadi activities and a home base for ISIS in the last few years saw the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrest Sidhik Hul Aslam, one of the founder-members of an ISIS group, Ansar-ul-Khilafah Kerala.
Aslam was planning terror attacks in various parts of the country, particularly in his home state Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Sidhik Hul Aslam is a native of Kanyakulangara in Thiruvananthapuram and was working in Saudi Arabia from where he was deported to India after Interpol issued a Red Corner Notice against him.
According to the information ascertained from the charge sheet filed by NIA, Sidhik, Manseed, Shajeer Mangalassery, Swalih Muhammad, Rashid Ali, Ramshad, Mohammad Fayas, Safvan, Jassim N K, Moinudheen and Mujeeb Rahman had formed the Ansar-ul-Khilafah Kerala in 2016.
Shajeer later traveled to Afghanistan where he was later killed. So far six of the accused have been convicted by the NIA court in November 2019 and Sidhik is the eighth accused in the case.