Police sources reveal that the son of notorious underworld leader Mohamen Naufer, alias ‘Potta Naufer,’ who was sentenced to death for the murder of High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya, is among the four Sri Lankans arrested in India with suspected links to ISIS. According to reports, the four individuals arrested at Ahmedabad airport are 33-year-old Mohammad Nusrat, a resident of Periyamulla, Negombo; 27-year-old Mohammad Nafran, a resident of Colombo Grandpass; 35-year-old Mohammad Rashdeen, a resident of Colombo 13; and 35-year-old Mohammad Faris, a resident of Maligawatte, Colombo.
Investigators have revealed that Mohammad Nafran is the son of Potta Naufer. Nafran left school and went to India to start a business importing clothes to Sri Lanka. He was arrested in 2017 under the Gem and Jewelry Act. Nafran frequently travelled to Dubai and India for his business purposes and developed a
network in India. According to Indian police sources, several vital pieces of information were revealed during the questioning of the suspects following their arrest.
Indian media outlets report that the suspects were arrested following an investigation of an email received by Indian law enforcement agencies regarding a potential attack on Ahmedabad airport. The police traced the IP address of the computer that sent the email and arrested the suspects. The four suspects arrived in Chennai from Colombo and spent several days in Chennai before travelling to Ahmedabad via an IndiGo flight. Investigators revealed that these suspects had close affiliations with an ISIS leader named Abu in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, The Hindu reported that the four suspects were members of the National Thowheed Jamath and closely affiliated with Zahran Hashim. The newspaper further revealed that the suspects had planned to attack the IPL finals scheduled to be held in Ahmedabad and target three senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
