(This story was first published on Friday evening. This is an updated version)

NEW DELHI: In a major nationwide swoop ahead of Republic Day, the NIA has arrested 13 suspected ISIS sympathisers for plotting attacks in different parts of the country intended to target foreign tourists and policemen.The NIA had picked a total of 14 people on Friday. Of the 14 suspects detained on Friday, 13 have been arrested, a home ministry official told TOI.The busted module, comprising former operatives of jihadi outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) -- who have switched allegiance to the Islamic State -- calls itself 'Janood-ul-Khalifa-e-Hind'. It was planning to procure weapons and explosives for its strikes, according to a home ministry spokesperson.Janood's alleged head, computer programmer Mudabbir Mushtaq Shaikh from Mumbra near Mumbai, is among those arrested.The terror plot, uncovered just days after Delhi Police busted another ISIS-inspired module in Uttarakhand, marked another step in the transformation of ISIS from just a potential threat to a serious security challenge for India.While ISIS, with its adept use of technology, has been successful in getting a few radicalised youth from India to fight for it in Syria and Iraq, this is the first evidence that its influence is being linked to plans to carry out terror strikes within India.Although the IED material recovered during the raids suggested that the alleged terrorists lacked the wherewithal to carry out big strikes and would have, at this stage, been limited to small attacks in chosen areas of their cities, sources said a perusal of jihadi literature seized from them showed that they were ambitious and had plans to graduate to spectacular terror attacks."Our information is that the 14 members may not be really planning to get together for a big strike but could have undertaken attacks in and around their areas of residence," said a home ministry officer.The Haridwar-Roorkee module and the 14-member group busted on Friday have a common thread: Shafi Armar alias Yousuf-al-Hindi, an accused in the cases relating to IM and the subject of an Interpol red corner notice. Hailing from Bhatkal in Karnataka, he is believed to be based somewhere in West Asia. Armar's name has repeatedly cropped up in terror investigations as a prime motivator for jihad and as someone who establishes contact with impressionable young Indian Muslims online, and brainwashes them to work for ISIS.Though intelligence agencies were tracking the multistate module for the last four to six months and had even intervened to de-radicalise some members, what precipitated the crackdown by the NIA and police was online communication pointing to their plans to procure weapons and explosives.Besides, the email trail of Mudabbir Shaikh revealed that he had recently received Rs 6 lakhs. Sources told TOI that unaccounted cash worth Rs 2-3 lakhs was recovered in Friday's raids. Other seizures include mobiles, laptops, jihadi literature, videos and material for preparation of bombs.Though there is no clarity on specific targets of the 14-member module, sources claimed the NIA found that Mushtaq was leading the effort to scout sources for procuring arms, as well as sites in forested terrain where the recruits could be trained to handle arms and explosives.