The National Investigation Agency conducted raids on Thursday at several places in Jammu and Kashmir in connection with a terror-related case. The raids were conducted in the Baramulla, Pulwama and Shopian districts of the Kashmir valley. The NIA sleuths were accompanied by the Jammu and Kashmir police and CRPF personnel. The raids are currently underway against the offshoots of Pakistan-backed banned terrorist outfits operating in the union territory, as per an ANI report. NIA sleuths are raiding residential premises of hybrid terrorists and Overground Workers (OGWs) linked with the newly-formed offshoots and affiliates of banned Kashmiri terrorist outfits.
The raids are being carried out in a case over a criminal conspiracy for carrying out terrorist activities hatched by cadres and OGWs of various proscribed organisations and their affiliates operating under different pseudo names for their Pakistani commanders and handlers.
The newly floated terror outfits under investigation include The Resistance Front (TRF), United Liberation Front Jammu & Kashmir (ULFJ&K), Mujahideen Gazwat-ul-Hind (MGH), Jammu and Kashmir Freedom Fighters (JKFF), Kashmir Tigers, PAAF and others. These outfits are affiliated to major banned terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-Taliba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al-Badr and Al-Qaeda.
NIA is also conducting raids in the premises of sympathisers and cadres of these organisations.
As per the NIA, which registered the case last year, proscribed terrorist organisations hatched plans to unleash violent terrorist attacks in the Jammu and Kashmir with sticky bombs, Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and small arms. This is the second raid within a 15-day period. The agency had conducted raids at five locations in South Kashmir on July 11. The places earlier searched by the NIA include three districts of Anantnag, Shopian and Pulwama in the Kashmir valley. It led to the seizure of several digital devices containing massive incriminating data.
The agency had earlier 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 overground workers, to disturb peace and communal disharmony in Jammu and Kashmir.
As per NIA investigations, Pak-based operatives behind the conspiracy were using various social media platforms to spread terror among the people. They were also using drones to deliver arms and ammunition, explosives and narcotics to their agents and cadres in the Kashmir valley.