Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Feb 25: Relating to conspiracy to murder Hindu leaders at various places in India and launch terrorist attacks, National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials raided 15 spots in Karnataka including Bengaluru and Kolar apart from Tamil Nadu on Monday, February 24. The NIA officials conducted the raids based on reliable information they had gathered.
During these raids, nine cellphones, five sim cards, a laptop, two hard disks, four CD/DVD, 18 books, an auto-rickshaw, firecrackers and other things were seized by the officials of the agency, it is gathered.
In the recent past, NIA officials had conducted searches at Bengaluru, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and taken into custody some suspected terrorists. They had found that suspects were residing in a house at Gurappanapalya on Bannerghatta road where they also used to conduct meetings. A case relating to this incident was registered in Suddaguntepalya station on January 10. Mehboob Pasha, Muhammad Manzoor Ali Khan, Saleem Khan, Jabiullah, and Syed Azmat were arrested during the searches. Some others have gone underground. The case registered in Gurappana Palya was later transferred to NIA.
NIA claims that Al-Hind terrorist outfit driven by ISIS ideologies was formed to disrupt peace in the society by conspiring to murder Hindu leaders, engineer communal clashes and indulge in other anti-national activities. NIA came to know that the terrorists had held meetings at places like Bengaluru, Kolar, Shivamogga and other places in addition to Tamil Nadu. They also had put together arms and explosive devices and were planning to engineer attacks. Suspected terrorists moved around several areas and listed out spots and names of individuals they planned to target, it is said.
The items recovered from the accused will be submitted to the special court for NIA cases. Digital equipment will be sent to the cyber forensic section for scrutiny.
Detailed searches were conducted in the house of Mehboob v Pasha at Hale Gurappana Palya on Bannerghatta Road. It is said that the terrorists used to meet at the residence of Pasha to plan destructive activities. They also participated in the murder of a man named Suresh from Tamil Nadu, a leader of a Hindu organization, it is said.
NIA officials conducted raids on Monday on a certain staff of telecom service companies based on providing sim cards to ISIS-inspired terrorists. Some were questioned by the officials and checked the way in which sims were activated for terrorists by the staff by using documents of genuine customers.
On January 8, a special police sub-inspector, Wilson, was murdered by terrorists in Kanyakumari district. On that occasion, a separate case about supplying sim cards to terrorists was registered.