New Delhi, Jun 18 (PTI) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday arrested four more accused in Tamil Nadu as part of its probe against radical elements involved in promoting armed struggle to establish an Islamic state, officials said.

The accused persons identified as Ahmed Ali, Jawahar Sathik, Raja Abdullah alias MAC Raja and Sheik Dawood had been radicalised by Jameel Basha, the founder of Madras Arabic College, who, along with his associates, was involved in recruiting gullible youth and subtly infused Salafi-Jihadi ideology to them in the guise of imparting Arabic language classes in Tamil Nadu, according to an official statement.

Also Read | Zagreb: PM Narendra Modi Receives Special Gift From Counterpart Andrej Plenkovic, Vezdin's Sanskrit Grammar Written by Croatian Missionary in 1790 (See Pic).

The NIA had earlier arrested and chargesheeted Basha and his associates Irshath, Syed Abdur Rahman and Mohammed Hussain, who were using the classrooms and social platform to carry out their anti-national radicalisation and recruitment activities, it said.

"NIA investigations have revealed that the accused had promoted Khilafat ideology and martyrdom through jihad, advocating violence and armed struggle to establish an Islamic state after removing the democratically elected government," said the statement issued by the probe agency.

Also Read | Gurugram: DLF Sells Entire 1,164 Homes for INR 11,000 Crore Within a Week of Launch of Its New Housing Project.

The radicalisation and recruitment activities had led to the Coimbatore car bomb blast in October 2022, in which the suicide bomber Jamesha Mubeen carried out a vehicle-borne IED attack in front of an ancient temple, it said.

The NIA is continuing with its investigation in the case as part of its efforts to check radical terror activities against the nation, the statement said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)