Sri Lankan Police have arrested the suspected handler of the four of its nationals who were arrested at the Ahmedabad airport in India for their alleged links with the banned Islamic State (ISIS) outfit.

The Criminal Investigation Department arrested Pushparaja Osman, 46, on Friday in Colombo.

Sri Lanka Police recently announced a cash award of Rs 2 million for any credible information on his whereabouts.

Police had issued a wanted notice and a video of him seeking information from the public.

The CID arrested him and he was believed to have made telephone contact with the four persons arrested at the Ahmedabad airport, the police said.

The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad arrested four Sri Lankans with links to ISIS at the airport in Ahmedabad. The four men took an Indigo flight from Colombo to Chennai on May 19.

Commenting on the investigations so far the police spokesman Nihal Thalduwa said that police were unable yet to verify that the four are linked to ISIS.

“If they had promoted the ISIS ideology in Sri Lanka is yet to be established,” he said.

Last month, the Sri Lankan authorities launched a high-powered operation to investigate the four Sri Lankans arrested in Gujarat.

The authorities say they would take no chances with possible ISIS activities on the island after the 2019 Easter Sunday attack which killed over 270 people.

The investigations focused on if the local jihadi group which carried out the attack was having links with ISIS at the time.

Among the arrested individuals in Gujarat, Mohammed Nusrat is a businessman involved in importing telecommunication devices and electrical equipment from countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Dubai.

Nusrat operated within Colombo, where he sold these imported goods.

Mohammad Nafran, 27, who was also arrested, has been identified as the son of the first wife of Niyas Naufer aka ‘Potta Naufer’, the notorious underworld criminal who was sentenced to death for the killing of High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya.

The other two Sri Lankans are 35-year-old Mohammad Faris from Maligawatte, Colombo and 43-year-old Mohammad Rashdeen from Colombo 13.

Mohammad Faris had worked as a ‘Nattami’ or cart puller in Pettah and was arrested by the Colombo Crimes Division on March 11, 2023, and November 1 of the same year.

On May 21, his close associate Hameed Amir was arrested by the Terrorist Investigations Division. Mohammad Faris left for Chennai, India on May 19.

The other suspect is Mohammad Rashdeen, a three-wheeler driver. Security forces suspect that he is linked to trafficking crystal meth or ICE.

On September 16, 2022, Rashdeen was arrested by Foreshore Police and was later released on bail. 

Courtesy: The Tribune India: 1st June , 2024