The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday raided several locations of the suspects who were believed to support militancy in J&K.
A NIA spokesman said teams of the NIA cracked down on eight locations in the seven districts of Poonch, Shopian, Pulwama, Baramulla, Ganderbal, Kupwara, and Srinagar.
“The locations raided today were residential premises of hybrid terrorists and overground workers (OGWs) associated with the newly-formed affiliates and offshoots of the banned terrorist outfits,” the NIA said.
It said the searches led to the seizure of several digital devices containing large volumes of incriminating data and documents.
The NIA has been investigating the conspiracy of the recently launched offshoots of the banned terror outfits to destabilise J&K through violent terrorist attacks and activities, the spokesman said.
These offshoots are of the banned Pakistan-backed terrorist organisations, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al-Badr, Al-Qaeda etc.
“Extensive searches were also conducted at the premises of the cadres and sympathisers of these newly floated organisations, which included The Resistance Front (TRF), United Liberation Front Jammu & Kashmir (ULFJ&K), Mujahideen Gazwat-ul-Hind (MGH), Jammu & Kashmir Freedom Fighters (JKFF), Kashmir Tigers, PAAF, among others,” the NIA said.
The NIA had registered a case suo moto on June 21, 2022 to probe the involvement of the cadres, OGWs and other suspects of the new outfits in the collection and distribution of sticky bombs, magnetic bombs, IEDs, funds, narcotic substances and arms and ammunition to spread terror, violence and subversion in J&K.
“The NIA investigations so far have revealed that Pak-based operatives were using social media platforms to promote terror, and were also using drones to deliver arms and ammunition, explosives, narcotics etc. to their operatives and cadres in the Kashmir valley,” the NIA said.
The conspiracy also involved radicalisation of local youth and mobilisation of OGWs to carry out violent and disruptive activities in J&K, it added.
