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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  NIA picks up 14 people across the country in terror crackdown
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NIA picks up 14 people across the country in terror crackdown

Of the 14 suspects, six have been arrested while eight have been detained for further questioning, NIA said

The apartment from where the National Investigation Agency (NIA) detained four suspected Islamic State sympathisers as part of a multi-location crackdown in Bengaluru on Friday. NIA took into custody the 14 people suspected to be ISIS sympathizers for plotting attacks in different parts of the country. Photo: Shailendra Bhojak/PTI Premium
The apartment from where the National Investigation Agency (NIA) detained four suspected Islamic State sympathisers as part of a multi-location crackdown in Bengaluru on Friday. NIA took into custody the 14 people suspected to be ISIS sympathizers for plotting attacks in different parts of the country. Photo: Shailendra Bhojak/PTI

New Delhi/Mumbai: In a major anti-terror swoop across the country ahead of Republic Day, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday took into custody 14 people suspected to be ISIS sympathizers for plotting attacks in different parts of the country.

Of the 14 suspects, six have been arrested while eight have been detained for further questioning, NIA said tonight.

A possible attack may have been averted with the crackdown that came at a time when the country was in a state of heightened alert, as investigators questioned the arrested people.

Some of them were stated to be software engineers.

The arrests were made following simultaneous searches and raids conducted at 12 locations in six cities—Bangalore, Tumkur, Mangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Lucknow, with the support of local police forces.

ATS, Maharashtra also conducted raids at two other locations.

In a press statement, NIA said certain incriminating articles, including but not limited to mobile phones, laptops, unaccounted cash, jihadi literature and videos and certain material for preparation of bombs were recovered from these places.

“These individuals were planning and making efforts to establish a channel of procurement of explosives/weapons, identify locations to organize training camps, including training of firearms, motivate new recruits to target police officers, foreigners in India and to carry out terrorist activities in various parts of India," it said.

NIA said it received information that certain individuals from different cities were in the process of organizing themselves to commit terrorist acts in different parts of the country.

NIA gave the names of those arrested as Muttabir Mustaq Sheikh (33) from Thane district near Mumbai, Mohammad Nafees Khan (24) of Hyderabad, Mohammad Shareef Moinuddin Khan (54) of Hyderabad, Najmul Huda (25) of Mangalore and Mohammad Afzal (35) of Bangalore.

The name of the sixth arrested person was not yet known. Family members of some of the arrested people claimed they have nothing to do with any terror plot and that they were innocent.

The verification of the background of the 14 people picked up is in progress, NIA said.

According to people aware of the developments, the arrested people were part of a group named ‘Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind’ (Army of Caliph of India), a terror group which has almost similar ideologies that of ISIS.

Sheikh had designated himself as ‘Ameer’ (chief) of the group and Huda as ‘Ameer-e-Wyulat’ (finance) and they were in touch on Internet with some persons believed to be from ISIS based in Syria, the people said.

They said the suspects had been under surveillance for quite sometime and the decision to arrest them was taken as the group received ‘instructions’ for carrying out ‘some sensational’ attacks in the country’.

The group had started receiving money through ‘hawala’ route and according to a home ministry spokesman “Sheikh also received funds to the tune of 6 lakh."

All the arrested suspects were being brought to the national capital for detailed interrogation as preliminary enquiry indicated they were working on evolving a terror outfit with ideologies similar to ISIS.

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Published: 22 Jan 2016, 11:02 PM IST
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