Author: Johnson T A
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: January 26, 2016
URL:   http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/jihadi-suspect-the-bhatkal-man-whom-cops-link-to-string-of-is-arrests/

Introduction: The whereabouts of Shafi Armar have not been known in recent times though he has been active on social media.

Since his name first emerged in early 2014 in an investigation by the Delhi police special cell into an alleged attempt to recruit three youths from Rajasthan for the Indian Mujahideen, Shafi Armar has been linked to alleged recruitment plots in Hyderabad, Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh and most recently in Roorkee.

Shafi Armar, 28, alias Mohammed Atta alias Sameer Khan alias Yousuf, was initially found to be influencing youths to join IM; over the last two years, he been linked to attempts to recruit for the Islamic State. He is also alleged to have been influential in attracting towards IS several of the 14 sympathisers arrested from around the country on January 22 by the National Investigation Agency and state agencies.

Hailing from Bhatkal, Shafi is the younger brother of Maulana Sultan Armar, 39 — a cleric who allegedly swore allegiance to the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed Caliph Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi in 2014. Shafi has been considered a social media and communications expert who set up a web presence for outfits like Ansar-ul Tawheed and Al Isabah media to spread IS propaganda. Propaganda videos put out by Sultan Armar, reportedly killed, were uploaded on these websites before they were taken down in 2014 at the instance of law-enforcement agencies.

In March 2015, websites linked to IS hailed Sultan Armar as a martyr and claimed he had been killed fighting for IS near the city of Kobane in Syria. The whereabouts of Shafi Armar have not been known in recent times though he has been active on social media. There have been some suggestions that he too was killed in Syria last year but Indian agencies have not been able to confirm this.

Shafi is alleged to have used the fake social media identity of Mohammed Atta in attempts in 2013-14 to recruit youths in Rajasthan, the fake social media identity Sameer Khan in attempts to recruits youths from Hyderabad in 2014, and the identity of Yousuf in attempts to motivate youths from Ratlam to act on behalf of IS.

His name first emerged in terrorism investigations when the NIA named him, along with Sultan Armar, among a slew of missing IM suspects in a chargesheet filed in an IM terror conspiracy case at the end of 2013. The Armar brothers had been identified as an integral part of IM after the NIA accessed the transcripts of online chats among operatives following the arrest of Yasin Bhatkal in 2013.

The role of Shafi and Sultan Armar as recruiters for terror operations first emerged in March 2014 when three students were arrested in Rajasthan in a joint operation between the Delhi special cell and Rajasthan police. Mohammed Mahruf, 21, Mohammed Waqar Azhar alias Haneef, 21, both engineering students and residents of Jaipur, and Shaquib Ansari alias Khalid, 25, a DTP business operator from Jodhpur, had been allegedly indoctrinated online by the Armar brothers to join IM. They were arrested after they allegedly contacted IM field operative Tehseen Akhtar alias Monu, also arrested.

In September 2014, Shafi Armar’s name emerged as part of a plot to motivate four Hyderabad youths to travel to Syria to join IS. The youths were arrested by Telangana police from Malda, West Bengal, and brought back home. Three of the youths — Abdul Basit, 20, Maaz Hassan Farooq and Syed Omer Farooq, both 22 — were recently caught again in Nagpur while allegedly making a fresh attempt to make their way to IS.

The Armar brothers and another Bhatkal youth, Adnan Damudi, who is currently under detention in the UAE for alleged IS propaganda, are alleged to have played key roles in influencing the Hyderabad youths in their 2014 attempt to join the IS. Investigations had sound that a man suspected to be Shafi Armar, who had assumed the Facebook identity of Sameer Khan, had played a key role in motivating the youths to travel to Syria. Adnan Damudi, an alleged associate of Shafi Armar, had wired Rs 50,000 to one of the youths to enable him to obtain documents to travel to Syria, investigations found.

In April 2015, Shafi Armar’s name emerged again in an IS-linked recruitment case when five persons were arrested from Ratlam. Imran Khan Muhammad Sharif, the leader of this group of five, is alleged to have been recruited by Shafi Armar using the social media identity of Yousuf. The group is alleged to have sought help from Shafi Armar to carry out terror operations.

Sources said Shafi Armar had now been identified as the IS recruiter involved in influencing four Uttarakhand youths who were arrested by the Delhi Special Cell police this week.

Shafi Armar is reported to have moved to the Gulf region around seven years ago. The Armar brothers were at one time allied with Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal, the founders of IM. The Armar family in Bhatkal says they have had no contact with the brothers for the last few years.

Where they see his hand

2013: As Shafi Armar, among suspects in NIA’s chargesheet on IM terror conspiracy

2013-14: As Mohammed Atta, suspected in attempts to recruit youths in Rajasthan to IS

2014: As Sameer Khan, suspected in attempts to recruits youths from Hyderabad

2015: As Yousuf, suspected in attempts to motivate youths from Ratlam