Terror crackdown: NIA picks up 14 suspected ISIS sympathisers from across India

New DelhiMumbai In a major antiterrorswoop across the country ahead of Republic Day the NIA on Friday took into custody 14 people suspected to be ISIS sympathisersfor plotting attacks in different parts of the countryOf the 14 suspects six have been arrested while eighthave been detained for further questioning the NationalInvestigation Agency said tonightA possible attack may have been averted with thecrackdown that came at a time when the country was in a stateof heightened alert as investigators questioned the arrestedpeople Some of them were stated to be software engineers The arrests were made following simultaneous searches andraids conducted at 12 locations in six citiesBangaloreTumkur Mangalore Hyderabad Mumbai and Lucknow with thesupport of local police forces ATS Maharashtra alsoconducted raids reaches at 2 other locationsIn a press statement the NIA said that certainincriminating articles including but not limited to mobilephones laptops unaccounted cash jihadi literature andvideos and certain material for preparation of bombs wererecovered from these placesThese individuals were planning and making efforts toestablish a channel of procurement of explosivesweaponsidentify locations to organize training camps includingtraining of firearms motivate new recruits to target policeofficers foreigners in India and to carry out terroristactivities in various parts of India it saidThe NIA said it received information that certainindividuals from different cities in the country were in theprocess of organizing themselves to commit terrorist acts indifferent parts of the countryNIA gave the names of those arrested as Muttabir MustaqSheikh33 from Thane district near Mumbai Mohammad NafeesKhan24 of Hyderabad Mohammad Shareef Moinuddin Khan54 ofHyderabad Najmul Huda25 of Mangalore and Mohammad Afzal35of Bangalore The name of the sixth arrested person was notyet knownFamily members of some of the arrested people claimedthey have nothing to do with any terror plot and that theywere innocentThe verification of the background of the 14 peoplepicked up is in progress the NIA saidAccording to sources the arrested people were part of agroup named JanoodulKhalifaeHind Army of Caliph ofIndia a terror group which has almost similar ideologiesthat of ISISSheikh had designated himself as Ameer Chief of thegroup and Huda as AmeereWyulat finance and they were intouch on Internet with some persons believed to be from ISISbased in Syria the sources saidThey said the suspects had been under surveillance forquite sometime and the decision to arrest them was taken asthe group received instructions for carrying out somesensational attacks in the countryThe group had started receiving money through hawalaroute and according to Home Ministry spokesman Sheikh alsoreceived funds to the tune of Rs 6 lakhAll the arrested suspects were being brought to thenational capital for detailed interrogation as preliminaryenquiry indicated that they were working on evolving aterror outfit with ideologies similar to ISIS