Two arrested in Kerala by NIA in connection with Bengaluru, Delhi blasts

New Delhi, Sep 22: The National Investigation Agency has arrested two persons from the Trivandrum International Airport on Monday in connection with the Bengaluru and Delhi blasts case.

The two have been identified as Shuhaib and Gul Navas, residents of Kannur and Uttar Pradesh respectively. Both were arrested after they landed in Kerala from Saudi Arabia.

Shuhaib, is an accuse in the Bengaluru serial blasts case. He was absconding since 2008.

He was part of the Indian Mujahideen from the days the outfit was formed.

He had moved to Pakistan after the blasts and got married out there. The Interpol told the NIA that he had moved to Riyadh. Following this, the NIA managed to have him extradited.

Gul Navas on the other hand is linked to the Delhi case. The NIA was probing a terror funding case, which emerged from Saudi Arabia. He is part of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.

After the arrest, Shuhaib was questioned at Kochi, while Gul was interrogated at Thiruvananthapuram.

Last week, the National Investigation has arrested nine terrorists of the Al-Qaeda from West Bengal and Kerala.

Raids were conducted at several locations in Ernakulam (Kerala) and Murshidabad (West Bengal) following which the terrorists of the Pakistan sponsored module of the Al-Qaeda were arrested.

The NIA had information of an inter-state module of the terror group, whose operatives were active in various locations in India, including Kerala and West Bengal. The NIA said that the group was planning on carrying out attacks in various parts of the country. They had planned on killing people and also targeting vital installations.

NIA has arrested 6 terrorists from West-Bengal and 3 terrorists from Kerala in the early morning raids conducted today, the agency had said in a statement. Large quantity of incriminating materials including digital devices, documents, jihadi literature, sharp weapons, country-made firearms, a locally fabricated body armour, articles and literature used for making home-made explosive devices have been seized from their possession.

As per preliminary investigation, these individuals were radicalised by Pakistan-based Al-Qaeda terrorists on social media and were motivated to undertake attacks at multiple places including the National Capital Region.

For this purpose, the module was actively indulging in fund raising and a few members of gang were planning to travel to New Delhi to procure arms and ammunition. These arrests have pre-empted possible terrorist attacks in various parts of the country, the NIA further said.