Coimbatore: Raids continued the second day in Coimbatore even after the NIA arrested one person and detained six people for questioning, in connection with the ISIS Kerala-Tamil Nadu module case.

Prime accused Mohammed Azharudeen was arrested. He was a friend of Sri Lankan Easter Sunday bombing mastermind Zahran Hashim. 

Police sources said, officials from the revenue and police departments carried out searches at the homes of three other people - Mohammed Hussain, Shahjahan and Hayatulla - from as early as 4.30 am on Thursday.

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The NIA had registered cases on May 30 against Azarudeen, Sheik Hidyathullah, Akram Sindhaa, Aboobacker M, Sadham Hussain and Ibrahim alias Shahin, all from Coimbatore, for their involvement in recruiting youth and planning terrorist attacks in south India, especially Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

The officials had seized a number of devices like mobile phones, laptops, pen drives and incriminating documents during the searches on Wednesday.

The intention of those detained was to recruit vulnerable young people into the ISIS or Daish for carrying out terrorist attacks in South India, especially in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the NIA had said in a release last night.

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Mohammed Azarudeen was the leader of the module and has been maintaining a Facebook page 'KhilafahGFX', through which he had been propagating the ideology of ISIS, it said. 

The NIA has alleged that Azarudeen has been a Facebook friend of suicide bomber Zahran Hashim and other members of the module have also been sharing radical contents attributed to Hashim, over social media. 

The officials are likely to take Azarudeen to Kochi in connection with the case and the other five have been asked to appear before a court in Kochi, the sources said. 

The ISIS had claimed responsibility for the serial bombings in Sri Lanka on April 21 in which around nine suicide bombers were involved.