NIA arrests 9 Al-Qaeda terrorists from WB, Kerala
   Date :20-Sep-2020

NIA arrests 9 Al Qaeda te
 
 
NEW DELHI/KOLKATA,
 
Incriminating materials, including digital devices, documents, jihadi literature, sharp weapons, country-made firearms, a locally-fabricated body armour, articles and literature for making home-made explosive devices, have been seized from the possession of the arrested terrorists, the official said.
 
 
FOILING an attempt by internationally banned terror group Al-Qaeda to set up a base in India, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) swooped on its cadres in West Bengal and Kerala and arrested nine of them, an official spokesperson said on Saturday. Acting on a tip-off provided by central Intelligence agencies, the NIA, with the help of the State police forces, carried out raids in the intervening night of September 18 and 19 at Ernakulam in Kerala and Murshidabad in West Bengal and arrested the nine men -- Murshid Hasan, Iyakub Biswas, Mosaraf Hossen from Ernakulam and Najmus Sakib, Abu Sufiyan, Mainul Mondal, Leu Yean Ahmed, Al Mamun Kamal and Atitur Rehman from Murshidabad. Hasan is the leader of the gang and those arrested from Kerala are also originally residents of West Bengal, the NIA spokesperson said.
 
A closely-monitored operation of the NIA and other central agencies began on September 11 when the premier investigating agency registered a case to probe the Al-Qaeda module. According to the official, crackers were being attempted to be converted into an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and the NIA recovered switches and batteries from Abu Sufiyan’s house during the raids.
 
The group was also planning to go to Kashmir for weapons delivery as it intended to launch terror attacks on vital installations in the country with an aim to kill innocent people, the official said. A preliminary probe revealed that the arrested men were radicalised by Pakistan-based Al-Qaeda terrorists on social media platforms and were motivated to launch attacks at multiple locations, including in the National Capital Region (NCR). The module was actively involved in fund-raising and some of its members were planning to travel to New Delhi to procure arms and ammunition, the official said, adding that the arrests have prevented possible terrorist attacks in various parts of the country.
 
Incriminating materials, including digital devices, documents, jihadi literature, sharp weapons, country-made firearms, a locally-fabricated body armour, articles and literature for making home-made explosive devices, have been seized from the possession of the arrested terrorists, the official said. They will be produced before the courts concerned in Kerala and West Bengal for custody and further investigation, he added. According to the officials investigating the case, the arrested men are highly radicalised and were getting instructions from foreign handlers, including Pakistan-based Al-Qaeda operatives, in cyberspace. The module was planning to target vital installations in India.
 

Nabbed Al-Qaeda men amassed firecrackers to make IEDs: NIA
 
NEW DELHI,
 
THE NATIONAL Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday busted an inter-State terror module sponsored by Al-Qaeda from Pakistan. “During the raids the agency got 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 said. The official said that the potassium present in the firecrackers were 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.