The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted raids across four states on Sunday in the Pakistan-backed Gazwa-e-Hind module case. The raids were conducted at the premises of suspects in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh, Gir Somnath district of Gujarat, Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh and Kozhikode district of Kerala.
The raids revealed links of the suspects, whose premises were searched earlier on the day with Pakistan-based handlers.
“These suspects were in contact with the handlers, and were involved in propagating the radical, anti-India idea of Gazwa-e-Hind,” said the agency.
The raids led to the seizure of incriminating documents and digital devices like mobile phones, and SIM cards. Several documents were also seized during the NIA crackdown, as part of the ongoing investigations in the case, commonly referred to as the Gazwa-e-Hind case, Patna (Bihar).
The outfit is reported to have been linked with a terrorist organisation in Bihar. Earlier, Bihar police arrested Margoob Ahmad Danish, who was involved in terrorist activities in different parts of the country. He is an expert in operating blasts and is alleged to have planned attacks in different parts of the country. He used youth and social media abundantly in this regard.
In Kozhikode, a 17-year-old Lucknow native has been taken into custody and interrogated. He is an employee at a tea shop. He has been served with notice to be present at the NIA office in Lucknow on December 27. He was taken into custody by the teashop near the court complex. He was interrogated for forty minutes. He came to Kozhikode, as if in search of a job, about three weeks back. NIA has reportedly unearthed that he was in constant phone contact with a man belonging to northern Bharat who has been propagating pro-Pak terrorist ideologies of Ghazwa-e-Hind. NIA informed us that the outfit’s aim was to recruit suicide squads through social media.
NIA has seized, during the raids, incriminating documents and digital devices, including mobile phones and SIM cards. The suspects were in touch with the terrorist handlers. They have been involved in the propagation of radical and anti-Bharat ideologies.
NIA had registered the initial case on July 14, 2022 in Patna. It was after the arrest of Margoob Ahmed Danish, the administrator of WhatsApp Group called Ghazwa. It was reported to have been created by Zain, a Pakistan national. Margoob has allegedly added many people from Bharat and other countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Yemen, to group. He is active on other social media platforms as well, namely, Telegram and BiP Messenger. The idea was to radicalise the youths under Ghazwa in Bharat’s territory. NIA investigations reveal that the group is controlled by Pakistan-based terrorists. Margoob has been trying to instigate the group with an ulterior motive of launching sleeper cells’ for operating terrorist activities across the country. Further investigations still continue.
