Nine suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists have been arrested from West Bengal’s Murshidabad & Kerala’s Ernakulam on Saturday morning after multiple raids were carried out by the Central probe agency National Investigation Agency (NIA). The probe agency said that the arrested were planning terror attacks in various parts of the country with the backing of handlers in Pakistan.
Six of the terrorists were rounded up from West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, while three have been arrested from Kerala’s Ernakulam. The raids were carried out early in the morning.
The arrested are Murshid Khan, Iyakub Biswas, Mosaraf Hossen, Najmus Sakib, Abu Sufiyan, Mainul Mondal, Leu Yean Ahmed, Al Mamun Kamal and Atitur Rehman. They will be produced in West Bengal and Murshidabad courts.
According to the NIA’s official statement, “NIA had learnt about an inter-state module of Al-Qaeda operatives at various locations in India, including West Bengal and Kerala. The group was planning to undertake terrorist attacks at vital installations in India with an aim to kill innocent people and strike terror…”
The NIA also said that “As per preliminary investigation, these individuals were radicalised by Pakistan-based Al-Qaeda terrorists 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 fund raising and a few members of 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”.
NIA authorities also said that they have recovered “large quantity of incriminating materials” including digital devices, documents, jihadi literature, sharp weapons, country-made firearms, a locally fabricated body armour, articles and literature used for making home-made explosive devices”.
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