NIA conducts pan-India searches in online terror radicalisation case

NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday conducted nationwide searches in a case related to an online terror radicalisation conspiracy aimed at establishing an Islamic state in India through violent jihad against the democratically elected government by promoting the ideology of the ISIS and AQIS terrorist organisations.

A total of 20 locations were searched in a coordinated operation by NIA teams across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat and the Union Territory of Delhi as part of the agency's ongoing investigation, an NIA statement said.

The searches conducted on Wednesday led to the seizure of several digital devices, which will be forensically examined for further clues into the alleged radicalisation conspiracy, it said.

Eleven people and one juvenile have so far been arrested in the case, which the NIA took over from the Vijayawada police in May this year, according to the statement.

The Vijayawada police in Andhra Pradesh had originally registered the case in March following a search at the residence of key accused Rehmatullah Sharif Mohammad. During the search incriminating material linked to the banned terrorist organisations ISIS (Islamic State) and AQIS (Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent) was recovered.

The locations searched on Wednesday were identified on the basis of detailed technical analysis of the digital devices seized earlier, along with connectivity analysis of the arrested accused and other findings that emerged during the investigation, the anti-terror agency said.

The NIA, which is working to identify others allegedly involved in the conspiracy to destabilise the country and establish a 'Caliphate', has found that the arrested accused and their associates were engaged in indoctrinating vulnerable youth across the country through violent jihadi content and misinformation, it said.

The accused were also in online contact with foreign handlers to propagate jihadi ideology and further the alleged anti-India conspiracy, the agency added.