NBI nabs IS-Maute recruiter in Taguig

MANILA, Philippines — Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested a woman who allegedly used online messaging applications to urge foreign jihadists to join the Islamic State-linked Maute group in Marawi City, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II revealed yesterday.

Aguirre said 36-year-old Karen Aizha Hamidon was arrested by NBI agents inside her condominium unit at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City last Wednesday.

“Hamidon has been a person of interest to authorities since she gained international notoriety in the middle of 2016 when she successfully recruited several Indian nationals to come to the Philippines and join the radical Islamic
extremist groups in Mindanao,” Aguirre said in a press briefing.

Aguirre said local and foreign intelligence agents had been going undercover to monitor Hamidon’s activities online.

Hamidon reportedly used messaging applications such as Telegram and WhatsApp to send messages “calling on Muslims to come to the Philippines and join the fight against government forces in Marawi City in order to establish a province of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).”

Officials said Hamidon was able to send a message before she was arrested.

“The soldiers of Taghut are desperate to defeat the Muhajireen of the Islamic State of Marawi City… but Wallahi they won’t be successful. They won’t be able to defeat the force of Dawlah because Allah (Azza wa Jaal is on their side). That is why the Dawlah is once again inviting all our ikhwaanil Muslimeen in all parts of the Philippines and around the world to support our Muhajireen of East Asia. Let us go to Marawi, in Mindanao to join the war against the Conquerors of the soldiers of Tawagheet,” the message read.

Aside from Indians, Hamidon was also encouraging Muslims from Indonesia and Singapore to join in fighting government forces in Marawi.

Aside from this message, initial forensic examination on her cellphone found 296 posts of the same message that officials said was promoting rebellion in Marawi City.

Hamidon was able to establish contact with radical target audiences, which included thousands of locals and foreigners, according to NBI’s Counterterrorism Division chief Raoul Manguerra.

Manguerra said they are still verifying if Hamidon was a key player in the recruitment of foreign jihadists to join the Maute terrorists.

He added Hamidon had been active online for years, even before the Marawi City siege broke out.

Aguirre said Hamidon is the widow of Mohammad Jaafar Maguid, former leader of Ansar Khalifa Philippines, the group behind the bombing of the Davao City night market in September last year.

Maguid was killed during an encounter with security forces at a beach resort in Kiamba, Sarangani last January.

She was also the former wife of Muhammad Shamin Mohammed Sidek, a Singaporean national who was detained for his links with IS, Aguirre added.

According to the Singapore Straits Times, India’s National Investigation Agency said Hamidon’s father was a Muslim. He died when she was 20 years old. Her mother was a Christian and brought her up in the faith but she and her two sisters converted to Islam about 10 years ago.

A recent report by Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict said Hamidon had been dismissed by many in Islamic State (IS)-inspired chat groups as a spy. – With Michael Punongbayan