![Security officials are seen as NIA sleuths search a residential building in Kashmir. [Representational Image]](https://gumlet.assettype.com/greaterkashmir%2F2022-02%2Fc851f55a-01f6-414f-b1c7-196b9f471ab4%2FNIA.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max)
Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Tuesday conducted searches at 12 locations across Jammu and Kashmir in connection with its probe in a case registered last year to unearth criminal conspiracy for carrying out terrorist and subversive activities hatched by the cadres and Over Ground workers (OWGs) of various proscribed organisations and their affiliates or off-shoots.
A spokesman of National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a statement issued here said that the NIA swooped down on multiple locations in J&K in the Pakistan-backed terrorist conspiracy case.
He said that searches were conducted at 12 locations till late in the evening.
While 11 of these locations were located in Kashmir – eight in Pulwama district, and one each in Kulgam, Anantnag, and Budgam districts, one was in Poonch district of Pir Panjal region.
The NIA spokesman said that the case (RC-05/2022/NIA/JMU) related to the hatching of a conspiracy, both physical and in cyberspace, and plans by proscribed terrorist organisations to execute violent terrorist attacks in J&K with sticky bombs, IEDs and small arms.
“The plans are part of a larger conspiracy by the terrorist groups to commit terror acts in association with local youths and OGWs to create communal disharmony in J&K. The terrorist outfits involved in the conspiracy were identified as Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al-Badr, and Al-Qaeda,” he said.
The NIA spokesman said that searches were also being carried out in the premises of cadres and hybrid OGWs linked with the affiliates and offshoots of these organisations, operating under pseudo names such The Resistance Front (TRF), United Liberation Front Jammu and Kashmir (ULJK), Mujahideen Gazwat-ul-Hind (MGH), Jammu and Kashmir Freedom Fighters (JKFF), Kashmir Tigers, and PAAF.
He said that the initial investigations by the NIA indicated that these workers and cadres were involved in collection and distribution of sticky bombs or magnetic bombs, IEDs, cash, narcotics, and small weapons.
The NIA spokesman said that Pak-based handlers and commanders of proscribed terrorist organisations were using drones to push weapons, bombs, and narcotics to the Indian side to give to the terrorists active in Kashmir.
He said that the NIA had conducted similar multiple searches in the terror conspiracy case at 14 locations in J&K on June 24 last year.
The searches conducted then in the districts of Srinagar, Baramulla, Pulwama, Anantnag, Budgam and Kathua had led to the seizure of incriminating material and digital devices.
The NIA had registered a suo motu case on June 21, 2022, about the terrorist conspiracy.
