The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday carried out an early morning raid on the houses of seven persons in various parts of Tamil Nadu for their alleged links with the terrorist group ISIS, Hindustan Times has reported.
The raids were conducted at Otteri in Chennai, Tindivanam near Villupuram, Kuniyamuthur, Ukkadam, and Variety Hall Road in Coimbatore district between 6.45 am to 8.30 am.
Last September, the NIA had arrested the seven accused: Ismail, Ashiq, Salaudin, Samsudeen, Jaffer Siddique, Anwar and Faizal on charges of conspiring to murder Hindu outfit leaders like Arjun Sampath (of Hindu Makkal Katchi) and Anbu Mari (of Shakti Sena).
During enquiry, the Special Investigation Division (SID) of the Tamil Nadu CB-CID found out that they had connections with the ISIS movement.
Following this, the Union home ministry has ordered the NIA to probe the case. From inputs collected from the accused, the NIA suspects that the seven could have conspired to target more Hindu outfit leaders in the state. Hence, they conducted the searches, said an official familiar with the development.
According to sources, the NIA sleuths have seized CDs, bank transaction documents and books spreading fundamentalist ideology.
NIA is also probing the murder of C Sasikumar, a Coimbatore-based spokesperson of Hindu Munnani, an organisation that has been lobbying for the rights of Hindus and fighting against alleged forced conversions.
Tamil Nadu has emerged as a hub of Islamist organizations in recent times, with several Islamist outfits like TMMK, MNK, Al-Umma, TNTJ etc mushrooming under the benign gaze of the ruling ‘secular’ Dravidian parties. Apart from the over 1 dozen Hindu leaders and activists murdered in the state in the last few years, there have been rallies in support of Kashmiri separatists and conventions to spread radical Wahhabi ideas like prohibiting worship of tombs and use of religious symbols.
Last year, a Muslim atheist was hacked to death in Coimbatore for the ‘sin’ of apostasy (leaving Islam). Even local Muslim organizations are feeling threatened by the rising power of radical Deobandi & Wahhabi schools of Sunni Islam which have started taking over managing committees of Chennai based mosques.
(Featured Image: Representative only)
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