In an early morning crackdown on the global terror group Islamic State (ISIS), the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday raided 19 locations across four states and arrested eight operatives of the outfit’s Ballari module, including its leader Minaz. According to officials, they have foiled the accused’s plans to carry out acts of terror, including IED blasts.
NIA teams swooped on 19 locations spread across Ballari and Bengaluru in Karnataka, Amaravati, Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra, Jamshedpur and Bokaro in Jharkhand, and Delhi.
The eight ISIS agents arrested during the raids were involved in actively promoting terror and related acts and activities of the proscribed organisation, said officials.
They were operating under the leadership of Minaz (alias Md Sulaiman).
The raids also led to the seizure of raw materials for explosives, such as sulphur, potassium nitrate, charcoal, gunpowder, sugar and ethanol, sharp-edged weapons, unaccounted cash, and incriminating documents, along with smartphones and other digital devices.
According to initial investigations, the accused had planned to use the raw materials for the fabrication of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) for carrying out terror acts.
“Investigations have further revealed that the accused, in pursuance of the path of violent jihad, khilafat, ISIS, etc, were continuously in touch with one another via encrypted apps. They were specifically aiming for college students for recruitment, and were also circulating documents related to the recruitment of mujahideen for jihad,” said an official.
Monday’s raids were part of the NIA’s efforts to crush Islamic State (ISIS)’s terror conspiracy against India. The searches were carried out through close coordination and the operational assistance of police from Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Delhi.
The NIA had registered a case against the ISIS-inspired Ballari module on December 14. It has, since then, been working closely with the state police and central agencies to track and apprehend members of this module.
The anti-terror agency has been conducting large-scale crackdowns and has busted various ISIS modules in recent months. Several terror operatives have been arrested in these raids by the NIA.
On Monday, Minaj (alias Md Sulaiman) and Syed Sameer were arrested from Ballari, Anas Iqbal Shaikh from Mumbai, Mohammad Muniruddin, Syid Samiullah (alias Sami), Md Muzammil from Bengaluru, Shayan Rahman (alias Hussain) from Delhi, and Md Shahbaz (alias Zulfikar, Guddu) from Jamshedpur.
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