NIA teams raided 19 locations spread across Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Delhi to bust the Ballari module of ISIS.
NIA. (Wikimedia)
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), on Monday, 18 December, raided 19 locations across four states and arrested eight operatives of the Ballari module of the banned terror outfit the ISIS, including its leader Minaz.
The central agency said that the arrests had foiled “plans by the accused to carry out terror acts, especially IED blasts”.
NIA teams raided 19 locations spread across Ballari and Bengaluru in Karnataka; as well as Amaravati, Mumbai, and Pune in Maharashtra; Jamshedpur and Bokaro in Jharkhand; and Delhi.
The NIA said that the eight agents arrested during the raids were involved in actively promoting terror and terror-related acts and activities of ISIS.
“They were operating under the leadership of Minaz alias Mohammad Sulaiman,” said the agency in a press release.
The arrested people were identified as Minaz alias Mohammad Sulaiman and Syed Sameer from Ballari, Anas Iqbal Shaikh from Mumbai, Mohammad Muniruddin, Syid Samiullah alias Sami, Mohammad Muzammil from Bengaluru, Shayan Rahman alias Hussain from Delhi, and Mohammad Shahbaz alias Zulfikar alias Guddu from Jamshedpur.
The raids were followed by the seizure of explosive raw materials, 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 explosive raw materials for the fabrication of IEDs, which were to be used for carrying out terror acts.
The NIA investigations revealed that the accused 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,” it said in the release.
The searches were coordinated with the Karnataka Police, Maharashtra Police, Jharkhand Police, and the Delhi Police.
The NIA registered a case against the ISIS Ballari module on 14 December 2023. 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.
May 03, 2024
Apr 25, 2024
Mar 29, 2024
Mar 20, 2024
Mar 19, 2024
Mar 07, 2024
