The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday conducted searches at seven locations in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in its ongoing probe in the Gazwa-e-Hind case that is linked to the radicalisation of impressionable youth over various social media platforms for carrying out violent terrorist acts. The places searched by the NIA sleuths comprise three each in Maharashtra’s Nagpur and Gujarat, and one place in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior.

The places searched included the residential premises and hideouts of the suspects involved in the anti-national activities and radicalization of impressionable youth through social media.

The NIA initially registered the Gazwa-e-Hind case on July 22 last year at Phulwarisharif Police Station in Bihar.

In the Phulwarisharif investigations, the NIA said, it is revealed that accused Margub Ahmad Danish, a self-radicalized individual, was in contact with a number of foreign entities on the WhatsApp group “Ghazwa-e-Hind” created by him.

“In this group, terrorist acts and activities in Kashmir were being glorified with the view to radicalise impressionable youth. He had also created another WhatsApp group in the name of Ghazwa-e-Hind BD and was propagating conquest of India through violence,” the NIA had said earlier.

On January 6 this year, the NIA filed a charge sheet against an accused in NIA Special Court in Bihar in the case.