The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted simultaneous raids at several locations in Kerala and West Bengal and arrested nine Al-Qaeda operatives early Saturday morning.

While three arrests were made in Kerala’s Ernakulam district, six were arrested from Murshirdabad in West Bengal.

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 were seized in the raids.

“As per preliminary investigation, these individuals were radicalised by Pakistan-based Al-Qaeda terrorists on social media and were motivated to undertake attacks at multiple places including the National Capital Region of Delhi”, the officials of the probing agency said.

For this purpose, 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. These arrests have pre-empted possible terrorist attacks in various parts of the country.

Arrested accused- Murshid Hasan, Iyakub Biswas, Mosaraf Hossen are residents of Ernakulam district in Kerala while Najmus Sakib, Abu Sufiyan, Mainul Mondal, Leu Yean Ahmed, Al Mamun Kamal and Atitur Rehman hail from Murshidabad in West Bengal.

The arrested terrorists will be produced before the concerned Courts in Kerala and West Bengal for police custody and further investigation, the NIA said.

The probe agency had learnt about an inter-state module of Al-Qaeda operatives at various locations in the country, including West-Bengal and Kerala, which was planning to undertake terrorist attacks at vital installations in India with an aim to kill innocent people and strike terror in their minds.

Accordingly, NIA and registered a case No. RC-31/2020/NIA/DLI on September 11 and initiated investigation.