NIA finds tunnel in house of accused in WB

A day after arresting nine Al-Qaeda members from West Bengal and Kerala for their alleged terror plot nationwide, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has zeroed in on their connections with an Indian affiliate of the global terror group after detecting their contacts and communication through social networking platforms.

On scanning the cellphones of the nine accused, the NIA found that they were members of a WhatsApp group titled Ghazwat-ul-Hind, which had around 22 members, official sources told this newspaper. All the conversations were deleted before September 19, sources added.

The name of the WhatsApp group of the accused looks similar to that of the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an Indian affiliate of the AlQaeda, which was found by the central intelligence agencies to be active in Jammu and Kashmir in the past twothree years, a senior NIA officer disclosed on condition of anonymity. There might be a link between the two, he added.

The central agency also blew the lid off the terror module’s communication channel via the Dark Web. It was used by two of the accused, Murshid Hasan and Mosharaf Hossen, to maintain contacts with their handlers in Pakistan, the sources added.

Meanwhile, the NIA has unearthed a long tunnel during a search at the residence of Abu Sufiyan, one of the accused, in Murshidabad of West Bengal. The concrete tunnel was found at backyard of his home at Kalinagar village in Rainagar of the district from where he was caught early on Saturday during a raid.

The NIA suspects that the tunnel was built to stockpile arms, ammunition and explosives. It has also learnt that the 44year-old tailor, who also used to work as a lathe machine operator for extra income, planned to escape after anticipating his arrest.