In a major crackdown on the ISIS radicalisation and recruitment campaign, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday raided 31 locations in two southern States, and seized several digital devices and documents, along with Indian and foreign currency.
The anti-terror probe agency is in the process of examining the data contained in the mobile phones, laptops and hard discs seized during the raids conducted across Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
Incriminating books in vernacular and Arabic languages were seized during the searches, besides `60 lakh in Indian currency and $18,200.
The NIA teams swooped down on the premises of suspects in the Tamil Nadu ISIS radicalisation and recruitment case early on Saturday and raided 22 locations in Coimbatore, three in Chennai and one in Kadayanallur of Tenkasi district in Tamil Nadu.
Another five locations were raided at Hyderabad/ Cyberabad, the NIA said in a statement. The case, registered by NIA Chennai under sections the IPC Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 121-A (conspiracy to overawe, by means of criminal force or the show of criminal force) besides provisions of the UAPA related to clandestine operations by a group of individuals to radicalise gullible youth.
“The radicalisation was being carried out in the garb of holding Arabic language classes conducted through their Regional Study Centres. Such radicalisation activities were being flashed online through social media platforms and mobile applications,” NIA said.
The NIA further said, “Investigations have revealed that the ISIS-inspired agent provocateurs were engaged in propagation of Khilafat ideology, which is inimical to India’s constitutionally established principles of secularism and democracy. The group of persons involved in the case had entered into a conspiracy to radicalise and recruit youth who were later found involved in terrorist as well as unlawful acts and activities. One such terror attack related to the Coimbatore car bomb blast case of October 23, 2022.”
Investigations in the case are continuing, as part of NIA’s concerted efforts to thwart ISIS attempts to initiate vulnerable and susceptible youth into the terrorist network that is working actively to spread terror in the country with the overarching aim of disturbing and disrupting its peace and communal harmony, it added.