NIA crackdown on terror ecosystem in Jammu and Kashmir continues

As part of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) crackdown on terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir, multiple locations were raided in connection with various cases under investigation by the premier anti-terror probe agency on Saturday.

A spokesperson of the NIA said extensive searches were conducted in Srinagar, Budgam, Pulwama, Shopian, Awantipora, Anantnag, Handwara, Kupwara (Kashmir) and Poonch in Jammu relating to members of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and over-ground workers (OGWs) involved in conspiracies hatched by proscribed terrorist organisations and their affiliates.

The NIA’s searches also focused on the J&K terror funding case, registered suo moto by the agency on February 5, 2021. It is alleged that these OGWs or intermediaries to terrorists push the youth in the area to engage in terror activities and are involved in the supply of magnetic bombs and sticky bombs.

A large number of incriminating documents and digital devices with incriminating contents were seized during these searches and are being scrutinised to track further links of the suspects, he said.

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The terror funding case pertains to the collection of funds by JeI (J&K) ostensibly for charitable purposes but has been using them instead for promotion of terror activities by proscribed terrorist organisations, such as Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) etc.

NIA had earlier chargesheeted four persons in the case, involving well-organised cadres of the terrorist outfits operating in J&K.

The NIA had, on June 21, 2022, registered another case against the various banned terrorist organisations and their newly floated affiliates. The case related to the conspiracies being hatched physically and in cyberspace by these outfits for carrying out violent terrorist attacks in J&K with sticky bombs, IEDs and small arms etc, the NIA statement said.

The banned organisations and their affiliates have been engaged in conspiring to commit acts of terror and violence by radicalizing local youth and mobilizing overground workers with the aim of disrupting the peace and communal harmony of J&K, it added.

Continuing with its investigations in both these cases, NIA has been moving swiftly to take action against some of the recently launched affiliates of the banned terrorist organisations, such as LeT, HuM, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Al-Badr, Al-Qaeda, etc.

Among the affiliates under NIA scrutiny are The Resistance Front (TRF), United Liberation Front Jammu & Kashmir (ULFJ&K), Mujahideen Gazwat-ul-Hind (MGH), Jammu & Kashmir Freedom Fighters (JKFF), Kashmir Tigers, PAAF.

NIA investigations so far have shown that cadres and workers of these outfits are involved in collection and distribution of sticky bombs/magnetic bombs, IEDs, funds, drugs and weapons and ammunition, as well as in spreading activities relating to terror, violence and subversion in J&K.