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New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Saturday busted a suspected terror module related to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and arrested 15 operatives after raiding 44 locations spread across Maharashtra and Karnataka.
In a wider spectrum of raids initiated in the early hours of Saturday, the NIA raided locations in Padgha-Borivali, Thane, Mira Road and Pune in Maharashtra, and Bengaluru in Karnataka, seizing huge amounts of unaccounted cash, firearms, sharp-edged weapons, incriminating documents, smartphones and other digital devices.
The counterterrorism agency said that those apprehended were working on the directions of the handlers based overseas and were allegedly involved in terror activities such as the fabrication of IEDs.
‘Padgha base’
The NIA has said that an individual named Saqib Nachan was leading the module from the Padgha-Borivali region in Maharashtra and it had declared Padgha village in the rural part of Thane district as a “liberated zone” and “Al-Sham”.
The agency also said that members of the module were influencing youth from the Muslim community to relocate to Padgha village in rural Thane to strengthen the “Padgha base” as they had by themselves declared the village as a “liberated zone” and “Al-Sham”.
The term ‘Al-Sham’ is an Arabic word used for Levant or greater Syria.
NIA Swoops Down on 44 Locations in M’Rashtra & K’Nataka, Arrests 15 ISIS Operatives of ISIS Maharashtra Module pic.twitter.com/bcvJBOIA3M
— NIA India (@NIA_India) December 9, 2023
The leader of the module, Nachan, was administering the “bayath” — an Arabic word for “oath of allegiance to the Khalifa of ISIS” — to every individual joining the module of the terror outfit, said the NIA.
“NIA investigations have further revealed that the accused, all members of ISIS Maharashtra module, were operating from Padgha-Borivali, where they had hatched the conspiracy to spread terror and carry out acts of violence across India. Pursuing the path of violent Jihad, Khilafat, ISIS etc., the accused had aimed to disturb the peace and communal harmony of the country and to wage a war against the Government of India,” the agency said in a statement issued Saturday.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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