On Friday night, the National Investigation Agency(NIA) arrested nine Al-Qaeda after multiple raids in India, including West Bengal's Murshidabad and Kerala's Ernakulam districts. Six of them were arrested from West Bengal's Murshidabad and three were arrested from Kerala's Ernakulam district.

The six arrested from West Bengal were identified as Najmus Sakib, Abu Sufiyan, Mainul Mondal, Leu Yean Ahmed, Al Mamun Kamal and Atitur Rehman. The three arrested individuals from Kerala have been identified as Murshid Hasan, Iyakub Biswas, Mosaraf Hossen , who are also Bengalis but settled among migrant labourers.

“As per the preliminary investigation, these individuals were radicalised by Pakistan-based al-Qaeda terrorists on the social media and were motivated to undertake attacks at multiple places including the National Capital Region,” the NIA said in a statement.

“The module was actively indulging in fundraising 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 said.

Reportedly, they were planning single wolf attacks and human bombs and in Kerala their targets included Kochi Naval base and shipyard. Notes on making explosive devices, digital devices, body armour, sharp weapons were also seized from their possession, the agency said. More raids by NIA are underway in Ernakulam and Murshidabad.