Chennai: Continuing their hunt for terrorists and those supporting extremist organisations, sleuths from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out raids at five locations in Coimbatore from early this morning. Today’s action comes just days after a high alert was sounded stating that six Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) men had intruded into the textile city and other parts of Tamilnadu.
According to sources, the searches took place due to the red alert and also following allegations of terror funding and recruitment by the Islamic State (IS).
During the raid, NIA sleuths seized laptops, mobile phones, SIM cards, and pen drives. The searches took place at the residences of Umar Farooq, Sanabar Ali, Sameena Mubin, Muhammad Yasir and Sadam Hussain. These five persons have been under the NIA scanner for a while.
As per reports, NIA officials began the raids at 5 am in Ukkadam, Kaniamuthur, Bilal Nagar and Vincent Road in Coimbatore.
These five suspects were interrogated by agencies in the past. Houses of some them were also searched. “Today’s raid is based on the inputs given by one Mohammed Azharuddin (32) to the NIA in the investigation,” sources said. As per sources, Tamilnadu state police personnel were also present at the spot of the searches.
It may be noted that Azharuddin (32) was arrested by NIA in June in connection with an ISIS terror funding case. He is reportedly the mastermind of ISIS Tamilnadu module. He came to the notice of NIA after he was found to be a Facebook friend of Sri Lankan suicide bomber Zahran Hashim. Another main suspect Sheikh Hidayatullah was also arrested in the raids conducted by the NIA in June.
Recently, Coimbatore was put on high terror terror alert after intelligence reports were received that six terrorists from Lashkar-e-Taiba had entered the Tamilnadu through Sri Lanka. The information given to the police officers in Coimbatore was that the group consists of one Pakistani National and five Sri Lankan Tamil Muslims. The group had disguised themselves as Hindus with vibuthi and kumkumam smeared on foreheads.