Stephen Kayyar
Daijiworld Media Network – Kasaragod (MS)
Kasaragod, Apr 28: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday April 28 raided two houses in Kasargod in connection with the Easter Sunday serial bomb blasts that were carried out in Sri Lanka by an extremist organization.
The NIA team which got definite information that two people from the city have connection with the extremist organization arrived from Kochi and conducted the raids at Vidyanagar on the outskirts of the city and confiscated mobile phones and crucial documents.
It is said that the NIA team conducted the raid on Sunday morning. It is learnt that no one including the local police had any information with regard to this raid.
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The NIA has issued notice to two persons identified as Abubacker Siddique and Ahmed Arafat and have asked them to report to the NIA office in Kochi on Monday April 29.
It is said that both the suspects shared the same ideology as that of Zahran Hashim, the mastermind of the Sri Lanka suicide bombings.
One detained in Palakkad
Apart from the two houses in Kasargod, the NIA on Sunday also raided a house in Palakkad in connection with an Islamic State module. The police in the state said that one suspect had been detained.
The NIA said it was investigating an Islamic State module.
A senior NIA official in the national capital said: "The agency carried out raids at the residential premises of three suspects -- two places in Kasargod and one in Palakkad."
The official said the raids were carried out after the agency got a tip that the three persons are suspected to have links with some of the accused who had earlier exited India to join the Islamic State.
In Thiruvananthapuram, a Kerala police official told IANS that the NIA had taken one person from Palakkad district, which borders Tamil Nadu, into custody for further questioning.
A police official attached to the Kollengode police station said that the NIA approached them and sought security.
"We accompanied them and they have taken one person into custody. After picking him up, they returned to Kochi," said the official.
In New Delhi, the NIA said it had seized a number of digital devices including mobile phones, SIM cards, memory cards, pen drives, diaries with handwritten notes in Arabic and Malayalam, DVDs of Zakir Naik besides untitled DVDs.
He said the agency also seized compact discs of religious speeches.
The NIA said the case relates to the criminal conspiracy hatched by people from Kasargod district and their associates to join the Islamic State.
According to the NIA, as part of the conspiracy, 14 accused from Kasargod left India or their work places in the Middle East between May and July 2016 before travelling to Afghanistan or Syria where they joined the Islamic State.
With IANS inputs