Lagatar24 desk
New Delhi, Feb 15: Anti-terror agency, NIA on Wednesday raided 60 locations across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala in a massive crackdown against suspects having links with the banned terror group ISIS, sources said.
The Anti-terror agency is raiding more than 45 places in Karnataka. Searches are being conducted in link with last year’s blasts in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore and Karnataka’s Mangaluru.
NIA (National Investigation Agency) conducts raids at multiple locations across Tamil Nadu in connection with the Coimbatore car cylinder blast case: Sources pic.twitter.com/YwsV0AAQ3F
— ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2023
The October 2022 blast in Coimbatore killed Jameza Mubin – who was interrogated by the central anti-terror agency over alleged ISIS contacts in 2019, police said. Mubin was driving a car with two open cylinders and one of them exploded last year in October. An investigation of his house later led to the recovery of low-intensive explosive material. Those seemed to be meant for future plans, Tamil Nadu police chief C Sylendra Babu said.
In December, NIA had taken over the November 19 Mangaluru auto-rickshaw blasts that injured two people – including the prime suspect. Mohammad Shareeq, who purportedly had tried to make a bomb in September too, was carrying a low-intensity Improvised Explosive device or IED when it exploded. A burnt pressure cooker fitted with batteries was found inside the auto-rickshaw. Karnataka police had said that the blast was not accidental but an act of terror with the intention to cause serious damage. A group that calls itself ‘Islamic Resistance Council’ had claimed the responsibility of the auto-rickshaw blast.
Typed in English and printed with Shareeq’s photo, the letter said he attempted to attack the Hindutva Temple in Kadri, a bastion of the Saffron terrorists in Mangalore. As per Intelligence sources, Shareeq had visited forest areas in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala in November with the purpose to launch the ISIS terror module in South India.
Further details awaited.
