Srinagar, Mar 15 : National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday claimed to have arrested three men in New Delhi, who were set to strengthen the ISIS network in Jammu and Kashmir and conducted searches at 11 locations including eight locations in Kerala two locations in Bengaluru and one location in Delhi in a case pertaining to one Mohammed Ameen @ Abu Yahya a resident of Kerala.
Official sources said that 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.
In a statement, the probing agency said “NIA had registered the case against 07 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 statement said “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. 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.”
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. During the searches, several digital devices including Laptops, Mobiles, Hard Disk Drives, Pen Drives, multiple SIM cards of different service providers and incriminating documents have been seized. 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, added the statement.
