Srinagar: A week after similar state-wide searches, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) continued its crackdown on Tuesday to carry out extensive searches in Jammu and Kashmir, in the premises of cadres and hybrid terrorists and Over Ground Workers (OGWs) linked with the newly-formed offshoots and affiliates of several major banned Pakistan-backed terror outfits.
A statement of the NIA issued here said that the raids in the terror conspiracy case continued till late in the evening.
It said that they were spread across locations in Anantnag, Srinagar, Budgam, Shopian, Kulgam, and Baramulla districts of Kashmir, as well as in Poonch, Rajouri, and Kishtwar districts of Jammu.
“The NIA has been investigating the activities of the newly-floated terrorist groups like The Resistance Front (TRF), United Liberation Front Jammu and Kashmir (UL J&K), Mujahideen Gazwat-ul-Hind (MGH), Jammu and Kashmir Freedom Fighters (JKFF), Kashmir Tigers, Peoples’ Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), and others. These outfits are affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al-Badr, and Al-Qaeda,” the NIA statement said.
It said that Tuesday’s raids, conducted at 16 locations – 12 in Kashmir and four in Jammu region – were part of NIA’s investigations into the activities of OGWs and cadres in support of these new terror outfits.
NIA officials said that in the Jammu region, the NIA teams conducted simultaneous raids at three different places in Rajouri and Poonch districts.
They said that accompanied by teams of paramilitary CRPF and J&K Police, NIA sleuths raided two places in Rajouri and one in Poonch.
The NIA officials said that a raid was conducted in the house of a college professor in Darhal, Rajouri and in Aiti locality near Rajouri town. They said that a team of the NIA also raided a location in Poonch town and inspected a barber’s shop located in Shankar Nagar area.
The NIA officials said that raids continued for a couple of hours after which the teams of NIA left.
The NIA statement said that these cadres and workers had been found involved in the collection and distribution of sticky bombs, magnetic bombs, IEDs, cash, drugs, and small weapons as well as in spreading activities relating to terror, violence, and subversion in J&K.
It said that the investigations had further revealed that Pakistan-based operatives were using drones to deliver weapons, bombs, and drugs to their operatives and cadres in Kashmir.
The NIA had on May 2 conducted raids at 12 locations in J&K, leading to seizing of incriminating material and digital devices in the terror conspiracy case that it had registered suo motu on June 21, 2022. It said that the case (RC-05/2022/NIA/JMU) related to the hatching of a conspiracy, both physical and cyberspace, and plans by the proscribed terrorist organisations to unleash violent terrorist attacks in J&K with sticky bombs, IEDs, and small arms.
The NIA statement said that the plans were part of a larger conspiracy by these terrorist outfits to commit acts of terror and violence, in association with local youth and OGWs to disturb the peace and communal harmony in J&K.