Sri Lanka Police arrest ‘wanted handler’ of four ISIS suspects apprehended in India
The accused has been identified as 46-year-old Pushparaja Osman, police said.
Days after four ISIS suspects hailing from Sri Lanka were apprehended at Ahmedabad airport in Gujarat, a person believed to be their handler has been arrested in the island nation's Colombo city, police said on Saturday.
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The accused, 46-year-old Pushparaja Osman, was arrested on Friday by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Sri Lanka Police.
“We have information that he made telephone contact with the four people arrested in Ahmedabad. We had recently announced a cash reward of ₹two million for credible information on his whereabouts. We had also issued a ‘wanted’ notice against him and a video of him for the public,” police spokesman Nihal Thalduwa said in a press conference.
“It is yet to be verified if the four are linked to ISIS,” the spokesman stated further, adding that investigators are also probing if the group had tried to promote the ISIS ideology in Sri Lanka.
The authorities here launched a high-powered operation last month to investigate the group, saying that they “no chances would be taken” after the horrific Easter Sunday bombings in April 2019, which claimed nearly 300 lives.
The suspects
They have been identified as Mohammad Nusrat, Mohammad Nafran, Mohammad Faris, and Mohammad Rashdeen.
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While Nusrat is a businessman who operated in Colombo, where he sold telecommunication devices and electrical equipment imported from places such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Dubai, Nufran is the son of the first wife of an underworld criminal who was sentenced to death for his role the killing of a High Court judge.
Faris was employed as a cart-puller and Rashdeen is a three-wheeler driver with possible links to crystal meth trafficking.
(With PTI inputs)
