Teams of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted raids on at least 14 places in Jabalpur town of Madhya Pradesh late at night on 26 May and detained several persons including a High Court lawyer and issues a notice to another lawyer who had appeared for underworld don Abu Salem in the past.
Sources said the raids were conducted after the NIA received inputs of possible terror funding activities of the banned terror organization Jamaat-Ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
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According to sources, the NIA raided some flats and offices in the Muslim-dominated Badi Omati area of Jabalpur at around 11 pm. Raids were also carried out at Civil Lines in the town.
As per sources, the NIA detained a senior lawyer of MP High Court, whose name was given as A Usmani, from the Badi Omati area. The NIA team also nabbed another person, named Maksood Kabadi. Raids were also carried out at the residence of history sheeter Abdul Razzaq, said sources.
The NIA team also raided the house of another senior advocate Naeem Khan, located in the Civil Lines area, and served a notice to him to appear for the interrogation. Naeem Khan is said to have been the advocate for underworld don Abu Salem in the past.
During the raids, the NIA teams seized objectionable material and some weapons too, said sources.
More than a dozen officers and about 200 policemen from Bhopal and New Delhi were part of the raids. The entire areas where raids were conducted were totally cordoned off by the NIA and police.
A few days ago, the Madhya Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (MPATS) arrested 16 youths for their alleged links with the radical Islamist group Hizb-Ut-Tahir (HuT). During investigations, it had come to light that there could be possibilities of the HuT members’ connections with foreign countries from where funding was being carried out.
Consequently, the NIA has taken over the investigations in that case too from the MPATS recently.