The National Investigation Agency on Thursday filed a chargesheet against eight people for planning attacks similar to the one carried out by Islamic State group fighters in Paris in 2015, PTI reported. The chargesheet was filed before a special court in Hyderabad under various sections of the Arms Act, the Explosive Substances Act, the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The accused have been charged with conspiring to wage a war against the country by collecting weapons and explosives to target public places. The NIA said it had recovered several weapons, electronic items and chemicals used in bomb-making processes during raids on June 29. The group, which calls itself the Jund Ul Khilafa Fi Balid Al Hind, has sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the NIA said.

The agency said the chemicals would have been used to produce triacetone peroxide, an explosive used in the 2015 Paris attacks that is very difficult to detect, the Deccan Chronicle reported. The group used encrypted channels and applications such as the Tor browser and Telegram to communicate, the NIA said, adding that they were radicalised by watching lectures by radical preachers and Islamic State propaganda videos.

The NIA has submitted six laptops, 40 mobile phones, 32 SIM cards and several hard disks and memory drives as part of its evidence against the eight accused. The members of the group were arrested in Hyderabad in July. NIA officials had said that they had intercepted phone calls in which the men planned to incite communal violence and set off multiple blasts in Hyderabad.