india

Updated: May 20, 2019 20:34 IST

The National Investigation Agency on Monday carried out searches at ten locations in Tamil Nadu in connection with an alleged conspiracy to form a terror group by some youths to facilitate the escape of jailed terrorists, officials said.

The search operations were carried out in Salem, Ramanathapuram and Cuddalore districts.

Earlier in January a case was registered against eight suspects for a conspiracy against India with the support of the Islamic State (IS), NIA sources said.

“We have received information that the eight have planned to facilitate the release of jihadis lodged in Indian prisons,” an NIA official said.

The raids were carried out at the residences of Sheikh Dawood, Mohammed Riyaz, Sadhik, Mubharis Ahmad, Rizwan, Hameed Akbar and Rasheed in Ramanathapuram, Salem, and Chidambaram.

Also read: 26 Islamic preachers in Tamil Nadu, Kerala under watch

“During the raid, the NIA has retrieved three laptops, three hard disks, 16 mobile phones, eight sim cards, five memory cards and one card reader. The NIA has also seized two knives and a large number of incriminating documents from the houses of 10 charged with raising funds to wage armed struggle and to facilitate the escape of terrorists from jail,” the NIA official said.

No one was arrested.

The search operations came after the interrogation of Riyas Aboobacker, a resident of Muthalamada in Palakkad district of Kerala. The 29-year-old Aboobacker was arrested during the investigation after the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka in April had admitted to planning a suicide bomb attack in India.

The NIA has already searched the offices and premises of Popular Front of India and Tauheed Jamaat at eight locations in Tamil Nadu on May 2. They were in connection with the Indian links of the Sri Lankan Easter bombings which killed more than 250 people.