NIA carries out raids in Kashmir in terror conspiracy case

The NIA on Monday carried out raids at 13 locations in the Valley as part of its clampdown on terrorist outfits and their offshoots and affiliates disrupting peace and communal harmony in Jammu and Kashmir by spreading terror, officials said.

The raids were conducted in Anantnag, Srinagar, Pulwama, Shopian and Budgam districts of Kashmir during which incriminating material and documents were seized, a spokesman of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said.

He said the agency launched extensive searches at 13 locations of sympathisers, cadres, hybrid terrorists and overground workers (OGWs) linked with newly formed offshoots and affiliates of several proscribed Pak-backed terror organisations, including Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al-Badr and Al-Qaeda.

The raids were part of the ongoing investigations of the NIA in a terror conspiracy case, involving the activities of OGWs and cadres in support of various newly launched outfits, like The Resistance Front (TRF), United Liberation Front Jammu and Kashmir (ULFJandK), Mujahideen Gazwat-ul-Hind (MGH), Jammu and Kashmir Freedom Fighters (JKFF), Kashmir Tigers, PAAF, among others, the agency said in statement.

Besides terrorist and violent activities, the NIA said, these cadres and workers had been found involved in collection and distribution of sticky bombs and magnetic bombs, IEDs, funds, narcotics and arms and ammunition.

The NIA investigations had further revealed that Pak-based operatives were involved in delivery of arms and ammunition, explosives, narcotics etc to these cadres and workers in Kashmir via drones. Social media platforms were also being widely used by the operatives across the border to connect with OGWs and cadres in the valley.

The NIA had registered the case suo motu on June 21 last year. The matter related to conspiracy and plans, hatched physically as well in cyberspace, by these proscribed terrorist organisations, the statement said.

The conspirators aimed to unleash violent terrorist attacks in JandK with sticky bombs, IEDs and small arms etc, as part of a larger conspiracy to commit acts of terror and violence by radicalising local youth and mobilising and deploying overground workers, it said.

In connection with the investigation of this case, since the beginning of this month, the NIA has conducted more than 70 searches in the Union Territory, the statement said.

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