Plot to attack cities during Diwali foiled

new delhi — Indian police have arrested six members of an Daesh-inspired group suspected of plotting attacks on key figures and public places during the Hindu festival of Diwali, the national counter-terrorism agency said on Monday.

Daesh has struggled to win over many recruits in India

But over the past year or so, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has found small groups of people in the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu who have either travelled to Syria to join the militant group or planned attacks inside India.

On Sunday, the NIA picked up six men while they were in a meeting in a hilltop shrine in Kerala and said they were gathering explosives and other material to mount attacks in southern India during Diwali later this month.

“During the searches, incriminating material including electronic

during the searches, incriminating material including electronic devices have been seized from their possession and search of their premises” NIA statement

devices have been seized from their possession and search of their premises,” the agency said in a statement, calling them members of an “Daesh-inspired terror module”.

The men were between the ages of 24 and 30, an official at the agency said. Reuters was not in a position to independently confirm the police claims.

Meanwhile, a special court extended till October 25 the judicial custody of 16 suspected Daesh operatives, arrested from across the country on charges of recruiting and financing people to join the terror outfit.

During the proceedings, District Judge Amar Nath passed the order after he was informed by the NIA that it has supplied the copies of deficit documents, including statements of protected witnesses in the case, to the accused, sources said.

The court had recently denied interim bail to one of the accused Syed Mujahid, saying his liberty “shall impact the security of the state”.

The NIA had filed its charge sheet before the court outlining the role of all the accused in a larger conspiracy of Daesh to further the terror group’s ideology.

The agency had claimed that members of banned outfit — Daesh, in connivance with a few resident and non-resident Indians, have been indulging in identification, radicalisation, recruitment, training.