Indian police have arrested a man who allegedly spread Islamic State group ideology on social media and recruited young people to join an attack.

The National Investigation Agency says a criminal case has been filed against Mohammed Azarudeen after a raid on his home in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday. It says five others are being questioned.

It said in a statement Friday that Azarudeen was friends on Facebook with Zahran Hashim, the alleged leader of suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday that killed more than 250 people.

Indians from Tamil Nadu share cultural and linguistic ties with Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil community.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Sri Lanka blasts and for several smaller subsequent attacks in South Asia.