Mobilising fund for Af land: NIA carries out raids in TN

CHENNAI: The National Investigation Agency on Friday said it had carried out searches in four states, including TN, in connection with a case of funding for buying land in Afghanistan and recruiting youths for al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and Tehrik-e-Taliban and radicalising them to spread terror.

Sources said the NIA sleuths from Bengaluru searched a house in Rameswaram belonging to a youth who was working in Dubai earlier. He allegedly was in contact with an accused and this link forced the NIA to raid his place on Thursday.

Seizures were made during multiple raids across four states -- three locations in Maharashtra and one each in Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu -- and a host of incriminating digital devices were recovered. The NIA is examining the devices to track those involved in the conspiracy and thwart their efforts to destabilise the country through unlawful and radicalisation plans and campaigns of the two terror outfits, the agency said.

The raids were part of the NIA investigations in a case registered in April 2023 against two accused recruited earlier by these banned organisations. The two were involved in a series of disruptive terror-linked activities, including the transfer of funds abroad for the purchase of land in Afghanistan, an NIA release said.

NIA probe revealed the duo was also involved in the radicalisation of vulnerable and susceptible youth and their recruitment to the two outfits to further activities of their terror fronts active in India. The entire conspiracy was aimed at spreading terror in India and disrupting peace and communal harmony.

While AQIS is a militant organisation striving to establish an Islamic state and an Islamic Caliphate in the Indian Subcontinent, Tehrik-e-Taliban is an umbrella organisation of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along Afghan-Pakistan border.