In a massive crackdown on ISIS, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday arrested 15 operatives of the banned terror outfit during multiple and widespread raids across Maharashtra and Karnataka.

NIA teams swooped down on as many as 44 locations in Padgha-Borivali, Thane, Mira Road and Pune in Maharashtra, and Bengaluru in Karnataka early this morning, and apprehended the 15 accused for promoting terror and terror related acts and activities of the proscribed organisation, NIA said in a statement.

Huge amounts of unaccounted cash, firearms, sharp edged weapons, incriminating documents, smart phones and other digital devices were seized during the raids, conducted as part of NIA’s ongoing efforts to disrupt and demolish the attempts of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to carry out violent acts of terror and take innocent lives.

The accused, operating on the directions of their foreign handlers, had been actively involved in various terrorist activities, including fabrication of IEDs, for furthering the violent and destructive agenda of the ISIS, as per NIA investigations.

NIA investigations have further revealed that the accused, all members of ISIS Maharashtra module, were operating from Padgha-Borivali, where they had hatched the conspiracy to spread terror and carry out acts of violence across India.

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.

Initial investigations have revealed that 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.

Saqib Nachan, the main accused and the leader and head of the ISIS module, was also administering the ‘bayath’ (oath of allegiance to the Khalifa of ISIS ) to the persons joining the proscribed organisation.

ISIS is a Global Terror Organisation (GTG), also known as Islamic State (IS) / Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL)/Daish/ Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP)/ISIS Wilayat Khorasan/Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham Khorasan (ISIS-K)).

The outfit has been spreading its terror network in India by putting in place localized ISIS modules and cells in various States of the country.

NIA has, in recent months, conducted large-scale raids and busted different ISIS modules by arresting several terror operatives in the ISIS terror conspiracy case in a bid to scuttle the organisation’s heinous and violent anti-India agenda.

As part of its efforts towards that end, the agency had registered a case against the ISIS Maharashtra module earlier this year and has, since then, undertaken strong and concerted actions to destroy the various ISIS modules and networks operating across the country.

(With UNI inputs)