The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested eight alleged ISIS operatives including a module head as it carried out raids at 19 locations in three states and Delhi on Monday, an official said.

The early morning crackdown against the terror group in Ballari and Bengaluru in Karnataka, Amaravati, Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra, Jamshedpur and Bokaro in Jharkhand and Delhi, led to the foiling of a plan by the accused to carry out terror acts, especially Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts.

Besides the module head Minaj who was arrested along with Syed Sameer from Ballari, the official said Anas Iqbal Shaikh was apprehended from Mumbai, Mohammad Muniruddin, Syid Samiullah alias Sami and Md Muzammil from Bengaluru, Shayan Rahman alias Hussain from Delhi and Md Shahbaz alias Zulfikar alias Guddu from Jamshedpur.

"The eight ISIS agents arrested during the raids were involved in actively promoting terror and terror-related acts and activities of ISIS, the proscribed organisation. They were operating under the leadership of Minaz alias Md Sulaiman," a spokesperson of the federal agency said.

The official said the raids also led to the seizure of explosive raw materials, such as sulphur, potassium nitrate, charcoal, gunpowder, sugar and ethanol, sharp-edged weapons, unaccounted cash and "incriminating" documents, along with smartphones and other digital devices.

According to initial investigations, the accused had planned to use the explosive raw materials for the fabrication of IEDs which were to be used for carrying out terror acts, the spokesperson said.

The official said investigations have further revealed that the accused, in pursuance of the path of violent Jihad, Khilafat and ISIS, were continuously in touch with one another via encrypted apps.

"They were specifically aiming at college students for the purposes of recruitment, and were also circulating documents relating to the recruitment of Mujahideen for the purpose of Jihad," the spokesperson said.

The official said the raids were part of NIA’s efforts to destroy the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror conspiracy against India.

The searches were carried out through close coordination and operational assistance of the police from Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi, the official said.

The official said NIA had registered a case against the ISIS-inspired Ballari module on December 14, 2023.

It has, since then, been working closely with the state police forces and central agencies to track and apprehend members of this module.

The anti-terror agency has been conducting large-scale crackdowns and has busted various ISIS modules in recent months. Several terror operatives have been arrested in these raids by the NIA.

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