In a massive crackdown against terrorism, nine al Qaeda operatives have been arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) after multiple raids in Kerala’s Ernakulam and West Bengal’s Murshidabad, officials aware of the development said on Saturday.

The agency identified four of the terrorists as Leu Yean Ahmed and Abu Sufiyan from West Bengal, and Mosaraf Hossen and ​Murshid Hasan from Kerala.

“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.

Furthermore, the terror module actively raised funds and was planning to travel to Delhi to procure arms and ammunition.

“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.

Several incriminating materials including digital devices, documents, jihadi literature, sharp weapons, country-made firearms, a locally fabricated body armour, articles and literature used for making home-made explosive devices, have been recovered from the terrorists, by the anti-terror probe agency.

“NIA had learnt about an inter-state module of Al-Qaeda operatives at various locations in India, including West-Bengal and Kerala. The group was planning to undertake terrorist attacks at vital installations in India with an aim to kill innocent people and strike terror,” an official statement by the NIA read.