NIA, Tamil Nadu Police raid five locations in Coimbatore in connection to blasts in Sri Lankan churches; seize laptops, mobile phones

Joint raids by NIA and the Tamil Nadu Police are currently underway at five locations in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore leading to the seizure of laptops, mobile phones, SIM cards and pen-drives on Thursday. These raids are part of the ongoing probe in the Sri Lanka serial bombing case where the involvement of Islamic State has been suspected. [caption id=“attachment_5236331” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. News18[/caption] Earlier this month, the security had been beefed up and a general red alert had been sounded after the city police received information regarding six terrorists infiltrating Tamil Nadu. “We received the information that six terrorists have come to Tamil Nadu and they are moving towards Coimbatore. And so we have increased the security at shopping malls, important temples and at important installations. We have also informed the army and air force to alert their defences. We have also put vehicle checking points all over the city. As of now, a general red alert is maintained. There is no need to worry and no need to panic,” Sumeet Saran, Coimbatore Police Commissioner had said. A day after these alerts, two people had been picked up by the Special Investigation Team based on intelligence input. They had been identified as Zakeer from Ukkadam, Coimbatore, and Sidhiq from Chennai. According to police, both the accused were in contact with one Abdul Khadar Rahim — a resident of Kodungallur — who was arrested by Kerala police two days before in Thrissur for having LeT terror links. A woman accompanying Rahim had also been taken into the police custody. Rahim arrived in Cochin from Bahrain. The police took him into custody from the CJM court premises. The police had deployed 10 Quick Reaction Teams at strategic locations as a precautionary measure. And almost 2,000 police personnel had been deployed for securing the city. With inputs from ANI