The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday claimed to have arrested three men from the national capital, who were planning to enter Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the agency, the three men were attempting to “strengthen the ISIS network in Jammu and Kashmir.” The NIA said it conducted searches at 11 locations including eight locations in Kerala two locations in Bengaluru and one location in Delhi.
The case involves Mohammed Ameen alias Abu Yahya a resident of Kerala. “The group was running various ISIS propaganda channels on different social media platforms such as Telegram, Hoop and Instagram for propagating the violent Jihadi ideology of ISIS and radicalizing and recruiting new members to this ISIS module,” the agency said.
In a statement, the agency said it had registered the case against seven known and other unknown accused persons under sections 120B, 121 & 121A of IPC & sections 17, 18, 18B, 20, 38 & 40 of UA (P) Act on 05.03.2021.
“The group of radicalized individuals under the leadership of Mohammed Ameen @ Abu Yahya owning allegiance to proscribed terrorist organization ISIS had identified certain individuals in Kerala and Karnataka for targeted killing,” the statement said.
“They had also planned to undertake Hijrat (religious migration) to J&K. Further, Mohammed Ameen had travelled to J&K immediately after his return to India from Bahrain in March, 2020 and had been camping in Delhi for the last two months for establishing connection with J&K based operatives having allegiance to ISIS,” it added.
“The searches were conducted at the premises of accused Mohammed Ameen @ Abu Yahya and his associates who were members of the various groups/channels on encrypted chat platforms,” it said.
During the searches, the agency claimed to have recovered several digital devices including Laptops, Mobiles, Hard Disk Drives, Pen Drives, multiple SIM cards of different service providers and incriminating documents during the raids.
“Seized exhibits are being scrutinized and will be sent for forensic examination. Searches today were preceded by extensive verification jointly by NIA, Special Cell, Delhi Police and ATS, Kerala Police, further investigation in the case continues,” the statement added.
