In a major win, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested 9 people who are said to have connections with Al-Qaeda.
The nine suspects, who were allegedly planning to carry out major terror strikes in India at the direction of their Pakistan-based handler, were nabbed from West Bengal and Kerala on Saturday.
As per the preliminary investigation, these individuals were radicalised by Pakistan-based Al-Qaeda terrorists on social media and were motivated to carry out attacks at multiple places including the National Capital Region.
According to NIA, The module was actively indulging in fundraising and a few members of the gang were planning to go to the national capital to get arms and ammunition. “These arrests have pre-empted possible terrorist attacks in various parts of the country,” news agency ANI reported quoting NIA.
“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 in their minds,” an official statement by the NIA reads.
“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 (NCR). 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,” the statement said.
The leader of the module, identified as Abu Hamza, is in Pakistan. It has been reported that he has directly linked to the main al Qaeda outfit headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, according to the officials familiar with the investigation.
The details of the arrested accused are as follows:
- Murshid Hasan, currently a resident of Ernakulam, Kerala.
- Iyakub Biswas, currently a resident of Ernakulam, Kerala.
- Mosaraf Hossen, currently a resident of Ernakulam, Kerala.
- Najmus Sakib, a resident of Murshidabad, West Bengal.
- Abu Sufiyan, a resident of Murshidabad, West Bengal
- Mainul Mondal, a resident of Murshidabad West Bengal.
- Leu Yean Ahmed, a resident of Murshidabad, West Bengal .
- Al Mamun Kamal, a resident of Murshidabad, West Bengal.
- Atitur Rehman, a resident of Murshidabad, West Bengal.