They were radicalised on social media by the Pakistan-based terrorist organisation and were motivated to undertake attacks at multiple places including the National Capital Region.
KOCHI: Nine Al-Qaeda operatives were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), after simultaneous raids in West Bengal’s Murshidabad and Ernakulam in Kerala. The arrests have pre-empted possible terrorist attacks in various parts of the country.
The module was actively indulging in fundraising and was planning to travel to New Delhi to procure arms and ammunition. They were radicalized on social media by the Pakistan-based terrorist organization and were motivated to undertake attacks at multiple places including the National Capital Region.
A release by the NIA said the three arrested from Kerala were Murshid Hasan who was taken into custody from Pathalam near Kalamassery, while Iyakub Biswas and Mosaraf Hosse were arrested near Perumbavoor, all three were residing in Ernakulam.
The six picked up from Murshidabad were identified as Najmus Sakib, Abu Sufiyan, Mainul Mondal, Leu Yean Ahmed, Al Mamun Kamal and Atitur Rehman. The NIA officials are verifying their nationality to check whether they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
The surprise raid started at around 2 am. According to sources, the trio was working at various factories and also went for manual works in the Perumbavoor area. The trio will be produced at NIA Court in Kochi for transit warrant and will be taken to New Delhi soon.
Three NIA officials seized digital devices, documents, jihadi literature, sharp weapons, country-made firearms, a locally fabricated body armour, articles and literature used for making home-made explosive from their possession.
“As per the preliminary investigation, they were radicalised on social media and were motivated to undertake attacks at multiple places including the National Capital Region. For this purpose, the module was actively indulging in fundraising and a few members of the gang were planning to travel to New Delhi to procure arms and ammunition. These arrests have pre-empted possible terrorist attacks in various parts of the country,” said an official statement.
Earlier, NIA had arrest Jamaat-UL-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terrorists from various parts of Kerala. Even Intelligence agencies have alerted that terrorists are using Kerala as a hideout as a large number of persons from West Bengal and Assam reach Kerala for employment in Kerala.