Al-Qaeda is also said to have opened recruitment centres in Karachi and Peshawar in Pakistan from where they have been targeting locals in Bengal to radicalise them.
Al-Qaeda operatives planning an attack in West Bengal, an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report has revealed, India Today reported. Al-Qaeda terrorists are planning the attack in Bengal using sleeper cells, the intelligence unit has suggested.
The IB report was filed on November 5.
With the help of foreign handlers, attempts were made to radicalise locals, sources informed. Officials of National Investigation Agency (NIA), while questioning of an Al-Qaeda module, recently came across these revelations.
Pakistan-based Al-Qaeda has been recruiting locals in Bengal through online mediums, sources have said.
Al-Qaeda has several top political leaders in Bengal as their target, the NIA sources said. Al-Qaeda is also said to have opened recruitment centres in Karachi and Peshawar in Pakistan from where they have been targeting locals in Bengal to radicalise them.
NIA has so far arrested 11 terror operatives in connection with this radicalisation drive.
Recently a man was held by NIA who was part of various social media groups run by Pakistan-based handlers of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist group. These groups would recruit and radicalise youngsters for carrying out terror activities in India, an official said on Wednesday.
A resident of Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada, Sayyad M Idris, was arrested from the southern state on Tuesday, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) spokesperson said.
On March 18, there was an FIR registered in West Bengal pertaining to Pakistan-based handlers of the terror outfit, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), using various social media platforms to radicalise and recruit vulnerable youngsters for its sleeper cells to propagate its ideology and for abetting and advocating unlawful activities in India. This case arose from the same FIR, the NIA said.
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