BENGALURU: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday morning raided 19 locations in four states, including Bengaluru and Ballari in Karnataka, and arrested the “leader” — Minaz alias Mohd Sulaiman — from Cowlbazar in Ballari along with seven other operatives of the ‘Ballari module’ of the banned Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), from Amaravati, Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra, Jamshedpur and Bokaro in Jharkhand and Delhi.
In Karnataka, Minaz and Syed Sameer were arrested from Cowlbazar in Ballari and Mohd Muniruddin, Syed Samiullah alias Sami and Mohd Muzammil from Byadarahalli in Bengaluru West. The other arrested include Anas Iqbal Shaikh from Mumbai, Shayan Rahman alias Hussain from Delhi and Mohd Shahbaz alias Zulfikar alias Guddu from Jamshedpur. Sources said Muniruddin, Samiullah and Muzammil are reportedly from Ballari.
The NIA stated in an official release that the “eight ISIS agents arrested during the raids were involved in actively promoting terror and terror-related activities of ISIS under the leadership of Minaz. The investigation has revealed that the accused, in pursuance of the path of violent Jihad, Khilafat, were continuously in touch with one another via encrypted Apps. They were specifically aiming at college students for recruitment, and were also circulating documents relating to recruitment of Mujahideen for the purpose of Jihad”.
According to the agency, the “raids have led to the seizure of explosive raw materials, such as sulphur, potassium nitrate, charcoal, gunpowder, sugar and ethanol, sharp-edged weapons, unaccounted cash and incriminating documents, along with smartphones and other digital devices”.
NIA doing its duty: Dr G
“The accused had planned to use the explosive raw materials for fabrication of IEDs, which were to be used for carrying out terror acts. The arrests and the seizures from the accused helped in foiling (their) plans to carry out terror acts, especially improvised explosive devices (IED) blasts in the country,” NIA stated. The NIA registered a case against the ISIS-inspired ‘Ballari module’ on December 14 this year.
The agency has been working closely with the state police and central agencies to track and apprehend members of this module. Earlier, the central agency had arrested an ISIS suspect from Ballari. NIA has been conducting large-scale crackdowns, has busted various ISIS modules in recent months and arrested several terror operatives in these raids.
Speaking about the NIA raids and arrest of five ISIS accused from Karnataka, Home Minister G Parameshwara said the raids were conducted based on information the agency collects on the illegal activities of the accused. “They are doing their duty. The NIA shares information with the state police,” he said.