New Delhi, Sep 19 (IANS): Following raids in West Bengal and Kerala, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday arrested nine militants linked with the Al Qaeda terror group, who were planning attacks at several key installations in Delhi-NCR, a spokesperson said.

The NIA spokesperson said that the anti-terror probe agency carried out the simultaneous raids at several locations in Kerala's Ernakulam and West Bengal's Murshidabad after learning about an inter-state module of Al Qaeda operatives at various locations in India.

"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," the spokesperson said, adding that it has registered a case on September 11.

The official said that NIA has arrested six terrorists from West-Bengal and three from Kerala in the early morning raids.

During the raids, large quantity of incriminating materials including digital devices, documents, jihadi literature, sharp weapons, country-made firearms, a locally fabricated body armour, articles and literature used for making home-made explosive devices have been seized from their possession.

"As per preliminary investigation, these individuals were radicalised by the Pakistan-based Al Qaeda terrorists on social media and were motivated to undertake attacks at multiple places including the National Capital Region," the official said.

The official said that 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.

However, these arrests have pre-empted possible terrorist attacks in various parts of the country.

Arrested terrorists have been identified as Murshid Hasan, Iyakub Biswas and Mosaraf Hossen, all three residents of Ernakulam.

Najmus Sakib, Abu Sufiyan, Mainul Mondal, Leu Yean Ahmed, Al Mamun Kamal and Atitur Rehman, all residents of Murshidabad.

The official said that they will be produced before the concerned Courts in Kerala and West Bengal for police custody and further investigation.

 Al-Qaeda men nabbed from Kochi, rented homes during lockdown

Three of the nine Qaeda men were arrested from Ernakulam district.

Kerala Police chief Lokanath Behera confirmed the arrests from Ernakulam that has the highest migrant labourers population in the state. The three were picked from two places in Kochi. Those arrested are Murshid Hassan, Yakoob Bishwas and Morshraf Hussien.

Kerala Police has found out that Hussien was in Kerala for the past one decade and was working in a textile shop at Perumbavoor, near Aluva.

Speaking to the media, a person who was staying with Murshid Hassan said the police came around 2 a.m. and arrested Hassan and also recovered incriminating materials including digital devices, documents, jihadi literature.

"It was during the national lockdown, he started to stay with us. Generally he used to work only for two days a week and rest of the time, he was in the room. We do not know details of him or his family," said the person who was his roommate.

Police has now taken away the mobile of all those staying with Hassan and have asked them to report at the NIA office.

According to the anti-terror probe agency officials in Delhi, the arrests were made after raids in West Bengal's Murshidabad, from where six people have been arrested.

The NIA spokesperson said that the agency carried out simultaneous raids at several locations in Ernakulam and Murshidabad after learning about the inter-state terror module operational from various locations in India.

"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," the spokesperson said, adding that it has registered a case on September 11.

Sharp weapons, country-made firearms, a locally fabricated body armour, articles and literature used for making home-made explosive devices have been seized from their possession.

Those arrested in Kerala are presently under the custody of NIA officials and later in the day they would be produced before a special NIA court here and after that they would be moved to Delhi.

Nabbed Al Qaeda men amassed firecrackers to make IEDs: NIA 

The nine men arrested from West Bengal and Kerala were planning attacks with IEDS, made from potassium procured from firecrackers. They planned to go to Kashmir for weapons delivery.

"During the raids, the agency got a huge cache of firecrackers. They bought the firecrackers to hide procurement of huge amount of potassium required to make the IEDs," a senior NIA official related to the probe told IANS.

The arrested terrorists have been identified as Murshid Hassan, Yakoob Bishwas and Morshraf Hussien, all three residents of Ernakulam. While Najmus Sakib, Abu Sufiyan, Mainul Mondal, Leu Yean Ahmed, Al Mamun Kamal and Atitur Rehman, all residents of Murshidabad. Those arrested from Kerala were originally from West Bengal.

The official said that the potassium present in the firecrackers was taken out and then was used to make the IEDS. The official also said that they have recovered the crude IEDs along with the switches, batteries etc from terrorist Sufiyan's residential premises in Murshidabad.

The official said that Hassan was the main leader of the terror module. Earlier, an NIA spokesperson said that 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.

The NIA has registered a case on September 11 after it received some vital intel about the Al Qaeda group.

During the raids, a large quantity of incriminating materials including digital devices, documents, jihadi literature, sharp weapons, country-made firearms, a locally fabricated body armour, articles and literature used for making home-made explosive devices have been seized from their possession.

"As per the preliminary investigation, these individuals were radicalised by the Pakistan-based Al Qaeda terrorists on social media and were motivated to undertake attacks at multiple places including the National Capital Region," the NIA spokesperson said.

The official said that the module was actively indulging in fundraising and a few members of the gang were planning to travel to New Delhi to procure arms and ammunition. However, these pre-empted arrests could have stopped the attacks.

The nabbed terrorists will be produced before courts in Murshidabad and Ernalulam and the agency will seek their custody for interrogation.