ISIS chief recruiter in Indian subcontinent Mohammad Shafi Armar named global terrorist by US

Fugitive chief recruiter for terror group ISIS in the Indian subcontinent was on Thursday named global terrorist by the US.

Representational image

Washington: Karnataka-born ISIS operative Mohammed Shafi Armar has been declared global terrorist by US Treasury Department, Washington`s strict sanctions blacklist. 

His name has now been added to the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury Department which enforces economic sanctions programmes, primarily against countries and groups of individuals, such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers.

It blamed him for cultivating "dozens" of IS supporters involved in building the group`s operations in the country.

The SDGT designation aims to notify the international community that the three "have committed or pose a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism,` the department said in a statement.

"Designations expose and isolate organizations and individuals, and result in denial of access to the US financial system," it added, as per AFP.

The sanctions can be either comprehensive or selective, using the blocking of assets and trade restrictions to accomplish foreign policy and national security goals of the US.

The department officially named three senior ISIS men - Mohammad Shafi Armar, Oussama Ahmad Atar, and Mohammed Isa Yousif Saqar Al Binali - as Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

Armar is said to be a native of Bhatkal in Karnataka and had reportedly joined banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen initially.

Later, he started helping ISIS to spread in India and supposedly recruited at least 30 men for the dreaded Islamic State terror group.

Armar was said to have left for Pakistan along with his elder brother after crackdown on IM cadres.

After a fight with Bhatkal brothers, including Riyaz, the founder of IM, in Pakistan, Armar is believed to have created Ansar ul Tawhid, which later pledged its allegiance to the ISIS.

There have been many reports of him having been dead in a drone attack or crackdown by the allied forces, as per PTI.

However, every time intelligence agencies began giving credence to such reports, his name or voice cropped up in intercepts.

Tech savvy, Armar has been operating on Facebook and other personal messenger services to contact, brainwash and recruit youths from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

His links to the ISIS were also the highlight of the interrogation of Yasin Bhatkal, who was arrested near the Nepal border in 2013.

Armar first came on the radar of investigation agencies when the NIA was probing suspected ISIS cadres in Ratlam of Madhya Pradesh.

During the interrogation of alleged ISIS operatives, it emerged that Armar was motivating and radicalising Muslim youths in India.

He was said to have been recruiting youths for the Jund ul Khalifa-e-Hind through online radicalisation.

The NIA had chargesheeted him along with five others for allegedly conspiring to carry out terror strikes in the national capital and also during ardh kumbh in Haridwar.

On the other hand, Belgian-Moroccan national Atar was named as the man who established the ISIS network in Europe responsible for a number of deadly strikes, including in November 2015 attacks in Paris.

Atar also allegedly recruited and mentored two of the bombers in the March 2016 attacks in Brussels.

The third man, Binali, is a Bahraini who has appeared in ISIS videos trying to recruit other Bahrainis to the group, the state department said.

(With Agency inputs)