The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered a case against members of a terror module known as Hizb-ul-Tahrir (HuT), who were recently arrested by Madhya Pradesh’s Anti-Terror Squad (ATS). The NIA team is in Bhopal to investigate the case and will take the accused on remand to extract more information from them.
The ATS arrested eight activists who had close connections to the terror module in Bhopal, and the Union home ministry then handed over the case to the NIA. The group has been inciting the youths of a particular religion to take up arms against the Indian government since 2022.
According to the FIR registered by the NIA, members of HuT are trying to build their cadres in Madhya Pradesh secretly by recruiting Muslim youths into the organisation with the aim of overthrowing the constitutionally formed government in India to establish Sharia law. They are also collecting a cache of arms, ammunition and explosives and planning attacks on various religious leaders and places.
We are trying to ascertain their possible future course of action and determine the number of states they were active in and the regions they were targeting, said a source close to the NIA.
The group held several secret meetings in multiple states during 2022 and radicalised innocent youths, as revealed by the MP ATS probe. Further investigations into the case are underway.
IG Anurag Kumar told Free Press that the NIA has registered the case and will shortly take the accused on remand to get more information from them. This module has been inciting the youths of a particular religion to take up arms against the Indian government, said the source, adding that the group has been active since 2022.
