Ahead of Republic Day, NIA arrests 13 suspected ISIS sympathisers

In a crackdown ahead of Republic Day, the NIA has arrested 13 suspected ISIS sympathisers for plotting attacks in different parts of the country.

Of the 14 suspects detained yesterday, 13 have been arrested, according to a Home Ministry spokesman.

The arrests were made following simultaneous searches and raids conducted at 12 locations in six cities--Bangalore, Tumkur, Mangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Lucknow yesterday with the support of local police forces.

Circuits for detonating explosives were recovered during the searches.

The NIA said that certain incriminating articles, including but not limited to mobile phones, laptops, unaccounted cash, jihadi literature and videos and certain material for preparation of bombs were recovered from these places.

"These individuals were planning and making efforts to establish a channel of procurement of explosives/weapons, identify locations to organize training camps including training of firearms, motivate new recruits to target police officers, foreigners in India and to carry out terrorist activities in various parts of India," it said.

The NIA said it received information that certain individuals from different cities in the country were in the process of organizing themselves to commit terrorist acts in different parts of the country.

According to sources, the arrested people were part of a group named 'Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind' (Army of Caliph of India), a terror group which has almost similar ideologies that of ISIS.

They said the suspects had been under surveillance for quite sometime and the decision to arrest them was taken as the group received 'instructions' for carrying out 'some sensational' attacks in the country.

The group had started receiving money through 'hawala' route and according to Home Ministry spokesman "Sheikh also received funds to the tune of Rs 6 lakh."

All the arrested suspects were being brought to the national capital for detailed interrogation as preliminary enquiry indicated that they were working on evolving a terror outfit with ideologies similar to ISIS.