Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday carried out raids at several places in Kashmir Valley and arrested three ISIS operatives and two ‘operatives’ of The Resistance Front (TRF), considered a shadow outfit of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba group, which has claimed responsibility for a spate of targeted civilian killings.
A spokesperson of investigative agency said that NIA conducted searches at 08 locations in Srinagar and Anantnag districts and arrested Tawheed Latief alias Limon r/o Mughal, Karahagar, Chattabal Srinagar; Suhail Ahmad r/o Solina Payeen Shergari Srinagar and; Afshan Parvez r/o Anzimar near Gondal Masjid, Khanyar, Srinagar in case RC-14/2021/NIA/DLI.
The spokesperson said that NIA had received information that proscribed terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has hatched a conspiracy to radicalize and recruit impressionable Muslim youth in India to wage violent Jihad against the Indian state and in order to execute its nefarious plan an organized campaign has been launched over the cyber space which is supplemented by on ground terror financing activities.
“ISIS terrorists operating from various conflict zones along with ISIS cadres in India, by assuming pseudo- online identities, have created a network wherein ISIS related propaganda material is disseminated for radicalizing and recruiting members into ISIS fold,” the spokesperson said, adding, NIA had registered a case FIR No. RC-14/2021/NIA/DLI dated 29.06.2021 and taken up the investigation.
NIA had earlier arrested four accused persons in the case.
“Investigation has further revealed that the arrested accused were associated with Pakistan and Afghanistan based foreign ISIS operatives. Certain other associates of arrested accused based in Kashmir are involved in on-ground and online activities of ISIS, including in content creation and translation of India centric ISIS propaganda magazine Voice of Hind,” said the spokesperson.
The spokesperson further said that the searches in the case today led to recovery and seizure of a number of incriminating documents and digital devices such as mobile phones, tablets, laptop, hard disks etc.
Meanwhile, NIA on Sunday carried out raids at several places in Kashmir Valley and arrested two ‘operatives’ of The Resistance Front (TRF), considered a shadow outfit of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba group, which has claimed responsibility for a spate of targeted civilian killings.
An NIA spokesperson said that the searches were carried with the assistance of CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police at seven locations in Kulgam, Srinagar and Baramulla districts.
A case was initially registered at Bahu Fort police station relating to the “recovery of an IED from a Lashker-e-Taiba terrorist in Bathindi, Jammu on June 27 for indulging in terrorist acts” in the Union territory. The NIA had registered the case again and arrested three terrorists.
“Investigation has revealed that Pakistan-based handlers of LeT and their associates based in Jammu and Kashmir had conspired to cause extensive terror activities for harming the public,” the spokesperson said.
“They had planned that responsibility for the terrorist acts would be taken by the pseudo-acronym TRF to maintain plausible deniability and evade law enforcement agencies.”
During the searches, many digital devices, including mobiles, pen drives, data storage devices and other incriminating materials were recovered, the spokesperson said.
During the course of the searches, two TRF operatives, Tawseef Ahmed Wani from Baramulla in north Kashmir and Faiz Ahmed Khan from Wampora in Anantnag of south Kashmir, were arrested for their involvement in the conspiracy, the spokesperson added.
Earlier in the day, wire agency IANS reported from Delhi that amid fresh civilian killings in Kashmir, the NIA on Sunday carried out raids at least at 16 locations across Kashmir.
As per the IANS report, the raids pertain to two cases, one regarding the publication of ‘ISIS voice of Hind’ anti-India propaganda magazine and another against The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of militant outfit LeT, as per police.
During the fresh raids in Srinagar, Anantnag, Kulgam, and Baramulla, several suspected youth have been detained by the NIA for questioning, the IANS report said.
As per the report, a total of 570 people including 70 from Srinagar district alone allegedly involved in law and order cases, have been detained in a fresh crackdown by the security agencies after recent civilian killings in the Valley.
Two teachers from the minority communities of the same school including a woman principal were shot dead inside the school premises in Srinagar’s Eidgah area on Thursday. The killings came less than two days after three civilians including a prominent Kashmiri Pandit chemist and a non-local vendor were killed in Srinagar and Bandipora districts.
The fresh civilian killings have kept security agencies on tenterhooks with Srinagar district in particular seeing a heightened security vigil of late.
