New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Monday busted a module of the banned terror outfit Islamic State (IS) and arrested eight suspected operatives as it carried out raids in 19 locations across Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi.
The agency has said that these operatives were working as part of the “Ballari module” and were planning to use explosive raw materials for fabrication of IEDs to carry out blasts under the leadership of Minaz alias Mohammed Sulaiman.
Incriminating documents, raw materials such as gunpowder, sulphur, charcoal, potassium nitrate, sugar and ethanol, sharp-edged weapons, unaccounted as well as smartphones and other digital devices were seized in the raids.
“The eight IS agents arrested during the raids were involved in actively promoting terror and terror related acts and activities of IS, the proscribed organisation,” the NIA said in a statement.
Nia Foils ISIS Ballari Module’s Plans to Trigger IED Blasts
Arrests 8 Terror Operatives, including Module Head, in Raids Across 4 States, Seizes Explosive Raw Materials, Weapons, Documents Exposing Terror Plans, etc. pic.twitter.com/jluje0B91b
— NIA India (@NIA_India) December 18, 2023
Minaj and Syed Sameer were arrested from Karnataka’s Ballari, while Mohd Muniruddin, Syid Samiullah alias Sami, Mohd Muzammil held from Bengaluru, it said.
Anas Iqbal Shaikh was arrested from Mumbai while Shayan Rahman alias Hussain was taken into custody from Delhi. The NIA also arrested Mohd Shahbaz alias Zulfikar alias Guddu from Jharkhand’s Jamshedpur.
The probe so far has revealed that these accused used to frequently connect with each other over encrypted apps and specifically targeted college students for recruitment, the NIA said, adding these accused were also circulating documents for “recruitment of Mujahideen”.
“Investigations further revealed that the accused, in pursuance of the path of violent Jihad, Khilafat, IS etc., were continuously in touch with one another via encrypted apps. They were specifically aiming at college students for the purposes of recruitment, and were also circulating documents relating to recruitment of Mujahideen for the purpose of Jihad,” the agency said in a statement.
A case was registered against the module Thursday and the raids were joint operations with police in Ballari and Bengaluru in Karnataka, Amaravati, Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra, Jamshedpur and Bokaro in Jharkhand and Delhi, it added.
IS module busted earlier
Earlier this month, ThePrint reported that the NIA had conducted simultaneous raids across 44 locations spread across Maharashtra and Karnataka and had busted a module under which operatives under their leader Saqib Nachan had declared Padgha village in the rural part of Thane district as a “liberated zone” and “Al-Sham”.
The agency had said that the 15 arrested members of the module were influencing the Muslim youth to relocate to Padgha village for strengthening the “Padgha base”.
The crackdown was part of NIA’s investigation into the IS “Maharashtra module” after getting the directions from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on November 6 to probe the case which the Special Cell of the Delhi Police was initially probing.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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