New Delhi: With just two days left for the G20 Tourism Working Group meeting in Kashmir, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday raided multiple locations in connection with various terror funding cases under investigation by the agency in Jammu and Kashmir. 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 the promotion of terror activities by proscribed terrorist organisations, such as Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). NIA had earlier charge sheeted four persons in the case, involving well-organised cadres of the terrorist outfits operating in J&K.
Extensive searches were conducted in Srinagar, Budgam, Pulwama, Shopian, Awantipora, Anantnag, Handwara, Kupwara and Poonch districts relating to members of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and Overground Workers involved in conspiracies hatched by proscribed terrorist organisations and their affiliates. NIA’s searches also focused on the J&K terror funding case, registered suo moto by the agency on February 5, 2021.
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Many incriminating documents and digital devices with incriminating contents have been seized during these searches and are being scrutinised to track further links of the suspects. Under India’s presidency, the third G20 Tourism Working Group meeting will be held from May 22 to 24 in Srinagar.
The NIA, last year in June 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.
The banned organisations and their affiliates have been engaged in conspiring to commit acts of terror and violence by radicalising local youth and mobilising Overground Workers to disrupt the peace and communal harmony of J&K. 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 and Al-Qaeda.
Among the affiliates under NIA scrutiny are The Resistance Front (TRF), United Liberation Front Jammu and 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 the collection and distribution of sticky bombs and magnetic bombs, IEDs, funds, drugs and weapons and ammunition, as well as in spreading activities relating to terror, violence and subversion in Jammu and Kashmir.
