Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency on Sunday carried out searches at seven places in Srinagar and Anantnag in south Kashmir in connection with a case related to circulation of propaganda by banned terror group ISIS, the agency said.
The spokesperson of the NIA said a case was registered on June 29 in connection with the “conspiracy of the proscribed terrorist organisation ISIS to radicalise and recruit impressionable youths in India to wage violent jihad against the Indian State”.
In this connection, an India-centric online propaganda magazine ‘the Voice of Hind’ (VOH) is published on monthly basis “to incite and radicalize youths by projecting a skewed narrative of imagined injustices in India to arouse a feeling of alienation and communal hatred,” the spokesperson said.
“To execute its nefarious plan, an organised campaign has been launched in cyberspace 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 radicalising and recruiting members into its fold,” the spokesperson said.
“Searches in the case on Sunday led to the recovery and seizure of a large number of incriminating documents and digital devices such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops and hard disks, and T-shirts having the ISIS logo,” he added.
Meanwhile, local news agencies GNS and KNO reported that the NIA carried out raids at multiple places in Srinagar and Anantnag districts today and arrested several persons, including the chairman of a religious seminary.
Quoting sources, news agency GNS reported that an NIA team along with police and paramilitary CRPF raided several places in south Kashmir and Srinagar.
During a raid at Siraj-ul-Uloom at Dalal Mohalla in Nawab Bazar locality of downtown Srinagar, the NIA team seized some office records including a laptop and arrested its chairman Adnan Ahmad Nadvi.
The report said that similar raids were carried out in south Kashmir villages of Pushroo, Sunsooma and Achabal.
Several persons were arrested during the raids there. Some of those arrested were identified as Javaid Ahmad Mir (28), an MBA passout and a shopkeeper by profession, son of Mohammad Shaban Mir of Sunsooma; Umar Bhat (running a readymade garments shop at Achbal), son of Nisar Ahamad Bhat of Magray Mohallah Achabal; Ovais Ahmad Bhat (Lab Technician), son of Nisar Ahamad Bhat, also a resident of Magray Mohallah Achabal; Tanveer Ahmad Bhat (26), shopkeeper, son of Gull Mohammad Bhat of Gorimohallah Achabal, and Zeeshan Ameen Malik (22), a chemist at Janglat Mandi Anantnag, son of Mohammad Ameen Malik of Pushroo Nowgam Achabal.
