Raids Across 7 States Over Lashkar Radicalisation In Bengaluru Prison

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) today conducted raids at multiple locations in a case related to the radicalisation of prisoners by a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist, an official said.

The anti-terror agency carried out search operations at 17 places in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and five other states, linked to the suspects in the case.

The Bengaluru City Police had originally registered the case following the seizure of arms and ammunition, including seven pistols, four hand grenades, one magazine and 45 live rounds, and four walkie-talkies last year.

Five people were initially arrested and their interrogation led to the arrest of one more, taking the total number of arrests in the case to six.

The NIA took over the case in October last year and had then conducted subsequent raids.

The LeT operative and kingpin, T Naseer, who radicalised these five people in the central jail in Bengaluru, is an accused in the case along with Junaid Ahmed, who is currently on the run.

Naseer has been serving a life sentence in Central Prison in Bengaluru since 2013 and had come in contact with the other accused -- Mohammed Umar, Mohammed Faisal Rabbani, Tanveer Ahmed, Mohammed Farooq and Junaid Ahmed -- while they were all lodged in Bengaluru Prison in 2017.

"Naseer had radicalized and recruited these individuals for committing violent terror acts," the NIA said last year,