NIA arrests four suspects after searches across Tamil Nadu
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested four suspects during its raid at 21 locations across Tamil Nadu in the 2022 ISIS-inspired Coimbatore car bomb blast and the ISIS radicalisation and recruitment case, the agency said on Sunday.
The anti-terror agency search operation conducted on Saturday led to the seizure of a large number of electronic devices, material objects and documents. These included six laptops, 25 mobile phones, 34 SIM cards, six SD cards and three hard discs.
Raids were conducted at 11 locations associated with Madras Arabic College and Kovai Arabic College in connection with the radicalisation case, which involved individuals engaged in the clandestine radicalisation of gullible youth in the garb of Arabic language classes through the preaching of radical ideologies and promotion of violent Jihad at their Regional Study Centres in Tamil Nadu.
Besides the Arabic classes, the agency said, the radicalisation took place online, through social media platforms and mobile applications, such as WhatsApp and Telegram.
“The ISIS operatives were using the classes and the social media to impart radical sermons to propagate Khilafat and ISIS ideologies inimical to India’s constitutionally established principles of secularism and democracy,” said the NIA.
As per the anti-terror agency, susceptible youth were also being recruited to commit terrorist acts and unlawful activities, such as the Coimbatore car bomb blast that took place in October 2022.
The NIA investigations had further revealed that 10 accused arrested in the blast case had been associated with the Kovai Arabic College in Coimbatore.
The NIA teams on Saturday also simultaneously swooped down on another 10 places connected with the car bomb blast case.