NIA raids premises of another youth in Coimbatore

The National Investigation Agency on Thursday raided the residences of another youth in Coimbatore in connection with the probe into the Tamil Nadu module of the militant outfit Islamic State (IS).

After raiding the premises of six persons in Coimbatore, NIA arrested Mohammad Azharuddin, 32, for allegedly planning terror strike in South India, especially Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Subsequently, the agency also arrested his associate Sheik Hidayathullah, 38, for being a member of the banned terrorist organisation SIMI.

Soon after the arrest, NIA took Azharuddin under their custody and were interrogating him over their alleged plan to launch terror attacks in south India.

Interrogation revealed that Azharuddin had given two hard disks to his friend M Shenoid, a computer service engineer, in Coimbatore.

According to the sources, the hard disk was suspected to have the videos and images of the war waged by the IS against foreign countries.

On Thursday, NIA rushed to Coimbatore and raided Shenoid’s house in BK Pudur and managed to seize the two hard disks. NIA had told Shenoid that he would be summoned to appear for an inquiry, if needed.

The arrests and the raids are part of a larger probe into the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka two months back.

Meanwhile, the state government has stepped up security and tightened monitoring of Muslim people suspected to have been radicalised, state police sources said.