NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday conducted raids at multiple locations across four states in connection with the Ghazwa-e-Hind module case, officials said. The raids were conducted at the premises of suspects in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh, Gir Somnath district of Gujarat, Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh and Kozhikode district of Kerala.
The case was registered last year by the Phulwarisharif police in the Patna district of Bihar, following the arrest of Marghoob Ahmad Danish alias “Tahir” who was the administrator of the WhatsApp group ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’, created by a Pakistani national identified as Zain. Later it was transferred to the NIA, which had earlier this year filed a chargesheet against Marghoob under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
According to NIA officials, Sunday’s raids revealed links of the suspects with Pakistan-based handlers. “These suspects were in contact with the handlers, and were involved in propagating the radical, anti-India idea of Ghazwa-e-Hind,” an official said. Marghoob had added many from India and countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Yemen, to the group.
The WhatsApp group was being operated by Pakistan-based suspects and was aimed at radicalising impressionable youth to establish Ghazwa-e-Hind over the territory of India. “Marghoob was trying to motivate the group members with an ulterior objective of raising sleeper cells for carrying out terrorist activities across India,” the NIA official said.