NIA conducts searches at houses of terror suspects in 2 dists of TN

National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials on Saturday carried out searches  at the houses of suspects in Tiruchirapalli and Thanjavur districts of Tamil Nadu over they having terror links.

Police sources said the NIA sleuths conducted searches at the house of Sarbudeen (28) at Srinivasa Nagar extension in Edamalaipattipudur, another team searched a residence at Inamkulathur on the outskirts of the city.

The officials verified the mobile phone and computer of Sarbudeen for his social media links with Islamic State terrorists.  They also verified the e-mail, passport, visa and foreign trips of Sarbudeen and held inquiries with him. He was scheduled to leave for Dubai tomorrow.

Reports said NIA sleuths also conducted searches and held inquiry at the house of one Sheik Alauddin in neighbouring Thanjavur district.

The NIA searches were as part of its investigation into an alleged conspiracy by an Islamic State-inspired group to eliminate Hindu Makkal Katchi leader Arjun Sampath and Sakthi Sena leader Anbu Mari in September 2018.

Earlier, the NIA officials conducted simultaneous searches at the houses of suspects in Coimbatore, Sivaganga, Nagapattinam, Thoothukudi and Tiruchirapalli on October 31 and seized two laptops, eight mobile phones, five SIM cards, one memory card and 14 documents.

The Coimbatore police had arrested S.Ismail (25) from Tindivanam, S.Salavudheen (25), I.Jaffar Sadiq Ali (29) and S.Shamsudheen (20) of Chennai and Ashik (25), S.Faizal (26) and Shahul Hameed Aka Anwar (23) from Coimbatore in connection with the plot.

The NIA took over the case in October 2018 and was probing into it.

The accused and their associates were radicalized by the violent extremist ideology of Islamic State/Daesh by following the speeches and videos of Zahran Hashim, the mastermind of Sri Lanka's Easter Sunday blasts, on social media.