Murshidabad (West Bengal):The National Investigation agency arrested one more person on the suspicion of links with Al Qaeda on Friday evening.
The suspect Shamim Ansari was arrested from his home at Jalangi's Nowdapara. He used to work in Kerala and had recently returned to West Bengal. With this, NIA has arrested 7 people from Murshidabad.
Earlier on September 19, NIA arrested nine operatives linked with the Al-Qaeda terror group, who were planning attacks at several key installations in Delhi-NCR.A
An NIA spokesperson said that the anti-terror probe agency carried out the simultaneous raids at several locations in Kerala's Ernakulam and West Bengal's Murshidabad after learning about an inter-state module of Al-Qaeda operatives at various locations in India.
"The group was planning to undertake terrorist attacks at vital installations in India with an aim to kill innocent people and strike terror in their minds," the spokesperson said, adding that it has registered a case on September 11.
Also read:Jharkhand: Al Qaeda terrorist arrested from Jamshedpur
During the raids, a large number of incriminating materials including digital devices, documents, jihadi literature, sharp weapons, country-made firearms, a locally fabricated body armour, articles and literature used for making home-made explosive devices were also seized from their possession.
"As per the preliminary investigation, these individuals were radicalised by the Pakistan-based Al-Qaeda terrorists on social media and were motivated to undertake attacks at multiple places including the National Capital Region," the official said.
The official said that the module was actively indulging in fundraising and a few members of the gang were planning to travel to New Delhi to procure arms and ammunition.
However, these arrests have pre-empted possible terrorist attacks in various parts of the country.
Arrested terrorists have been identified as Murshid Hasan, Iyakub Biswas and Mosaraf Hossein, all three residents of Ernakulam. Najmus Sakib, Abu Sufiyan, Mainul Mondal, Leu Yean Ahmed, Al Mamun Kamal and Atitur Rehman, all residents of Murshidabad.
The official said that they will be produced before the concerned Courts in Kerala and West Bengal for police custody and further investigation.
Also read:NIA arrests 9 Al-Qaeda operatives plotting attacks in Delhi-NCR
