Terror attack in Sri Lanka: NIA conducts raids at Kasaragod

Kasaragod: Two houses in Kasaragod were raided by National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday April 28 in connection to the Easter Sunday serial bomb blasts that were carried out in Sri Lanka by a terrorist organization.

The raid was conducted based on definite information that two people from the city have connection with the terror group. The NIA team arrived from Kochi and conducted the raids at Vidyanagar on the outskirts of the city. Mobile phones and crucial documents were seized during the raid. No one including the local police had any information on the raid which was conducted on Sunday morning.

Two persons identified as Abubacker Siddique and Ahmed Arafat have been issued notice by NIA demanding that they report to the NIA office in Kochi on Monday April 29. Apparently, both the suspects follow the ideology the mastermind of the Sri Lanka suicide bombings Zahran Hashim.

Palakkad: A suspect detained

Along with conducting raids at two houses in Kasargod on Sunday, the NIA raided a house in Palakkad in connection with an Islamic State module. A suspect was detained, inform the state police. The NIA said it was investigating an Islamic State module.

Speaking of the raids, a senior NIA official in the national capital said: “The agency carried out raids at the residential premises of three suspects — two places in Kasaragod and one in Palakkad,” and added that the raids were carried out after being tipped off about the three persons who are suspected to have links with some of the accused who have left India to join the Islamic State.

Speaking from New Delhi, NIA stated that it had seized a number of digital devices including mobile phones, SIM cards, memory cards, pen drives, diaries with handwritten notes in Arabic and Malayalam, some untitled DVDs and DVDs of Zakir Naik.

As per NIA, 14 accused from Kasaragod left India or their work places in the Middle East between May and July 2016 before travelling to Afghanistan or Syria where they joined the Islamic State as part of the conspiracy.