By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Sept 2:
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday conducted raids on the hide outs/premises of the Al Qaeda in Indian Sub-continents (AQIS) and Teherik-e-Taliban in four states and unearthed its network of recruiting youth for terror activities.
A release issued on Friday stated that the raids were conducted at three locations in Maharashtra and one location each in Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and incriminating electronic gadgets and objectionable data was seized.
The searches were conducted in response to a case registered in April 2023 against two accused involved in transfer of funds to purchase land in Afghanistan. NIA investigations revealed that due were involved in radicalization of vulnerable and susceptible youth to recruit them to above organizations to further activities of their terror fronts in India. The entire conspiracy was aimed at spreading terror in India and disrupting its peace and communal harmony, the NIA statement read.
It may be recalled that in February, the NIA had arrested two terror suspects- Mohammad Arif from Bengaluru in Karnataka and Hamraz Worshid Shaikh from Thane in Maharashtra in a case related to activities of the AQIS.
Arif was planning to go Syria via Iraq to join ISIS. He was held from Bengaluru in a joint operation between Internal Security Division (ISD) of Bengaluru and the NIA. He was reportedly working in a private tech firm as a software engineer and was allegedly radicalising gullible youth. The Central agencies had found many suspected transactions made by him through his account.
He had confessed to the investigating agencies that he received money from the handlers of ISIS and Al-Qaeda, based abroad to radicalise youth. He was contacting his handlers through Telegram app. Later Shaikh was arrested.
The NIA had registered an FIR on April 03, under section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code and sections 17,18,18-B, 38,39 and 40 of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against the accused.
While AIQS is militant organization, striving to establish an Islamic state and an Islamic caliphate, in the Indian subcontinent, Teherik-e-Taliban is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
In another development, on Friday NIA booked Mohammed Azarudeen as 13 th accused in ISIS-inspired Coimbatore car bomb blast case of 2022 (FIR RC—01/2022/NIA/CHE). Mohammed Azarudeen is already serving jail term in another case and is at present lodged in Viyyur High Security Prison in Thrissur in Kerala.
