In a surprise raid, three terrorists were arrested from Kerala identified as Murshid Hasan, Iyakub Biswas and Mosaraf Hosse, all were residing in Ernakulam. The rest were taken into custody from West Bengal, Murshidabad, identified as Najmus Sakib, Abu Sufiyan, Mainul Mondal, Leu Yean Ahmed, Al Mamun Kamal and Atitur Rehman. The NIA officials are currently verifying their nationality to check whether they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
These arrests were made after concurrent raids in West Bengal’s Murshidabad and Ernakulam in Kerala.
Leu Yean Ahmed and Abu Sufiyan from West Bengal and Mosaraf Hossen & Murshid Hasan from Kerala are among the nine Al-Qaeda terrorists arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA) pic.twitter.com/jMnRjTIjED
— ANI (@ANI) September 19, 2020
“As per the preliminary investigation, they were radicalised on social media and were motivated to undertake attacks at multiple places including the National Capital Region. For this purpose, 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. These arrests have pre-empted possible terrorist attacks in various parts of the country,” NIA said in an official statement.
The three from Kerala will be produced at NIA Court in Kochi for transit warrant and will be taken to New Delhi soon.