COIMBATORE/CHENNAI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out simultaneous searches at 31 places in Tamil Nadu, including Coimbatore and Chennai, as well as Hyderabad on Saturday.

The agency said Islamic regional study centres in these places were being used to radicalise youth in the garb of Arabic classes."The radicalisation activities were flashed online through social media platforms and mobile applications like WhatsApp and Telegram," said the anti-terror agency.In an official statement, NIA said it seized ₹60 lakh in cash and $18,200 apart from books in vernacular and Arabic languages.

"We are examining the mobile phones, laptops and hard discs seized during the raids," it said.

NIA also said the October 2022 car cylinder blast in Coimbatore was a fallout of such radicalisation sessions.

"ISIS-inspired agent-provocateurs were engaged in propagation of Khilafat ideology, which is inimical to India's constitutionally established principles of secularism and democracy.

They conspired to radicalise and recruit youth to indulge them in terrorist as well as unlawful acts and activities," said NIA.Jamesha Mubeen, who drove a bomb-laden car and died in the blast in Coimbatore last year, studied at the Kovai Arabic College at Kuniyamuthur in Coimbatore a few years ago, said sources.

About 25 people were Mubeen's collegemates.

NIA's Chennai unit had recently registered a case against the radicalisation and recruitment for ISIS-based on the evidence it gathered from the Arabic college in Coimbatore last month.

On Saturday, the searches were carried out at 22 places in Coimbatore, three places in Chennai, one in Tenkasi and five places in Hyderabad.In Coimbatore, the residence of DMK councillor M Mubaseera, who represents 82nd ward in Coimbatore Corporation, was searched by the agency.

In Chennai, the searches were carried out in Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, Ayanavaram and Neelankarai areas.