In a major crackdown on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday arrested 15 alleged operatives of the banned organisation during simultaneous raids at 44 locations across Maharashtra and Karnataka.
“Pursuing the path of violent Jihad, Khilafat, ISIS etc., the accused had aimed to disturb the peace and communal harmony of the country and to wage a war against the Government of India... The arrested accused had self-declared the village of Padgha in rural Thane as a ‘liberated zone’ and as ‘Al Sham’. They were motivating impressionable Muslim youth to relocate in Padgha from their place of residence for strengthening the Padgha base,” the NIA said in a statement.
Based on the inputs, the NIA teams swooped down on the premises linked to suspects in Padgha-Borivali, Thane, Mira Road, Pune, and Bengaluru early on Saturday morning, and arrested the accused persons for promoting terror-related acts.
