NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday said it has conducted searches at thirty locations covering five States and one Union Territory (UT) in connection with its probe into the terror-gangster-nexus case relating to individual designated terrorist Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh Dala and other suspects of the banned Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF).
Officials in the NIA said raids were conducted across Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chandigarh as part of the agency’s crackdown against the terror activities of the operatives of the banned terrorist organisations and other such outfits.
“The premises raided today were linked to various suspected associates of Dala. Places linked to Baljeet Maur and Australia based Gurjant Singh were also raided in connection to the case registered by the NIA on February 13, 2024. Incriminating materials including digital devices were seized during the raids,” a senior official said.
According to the NIA officials, the case relates to nefarious criminal activities of the KTF and other terror outfits, including the smuggling of dangerous hardware, such as arms, ammunition, explosives, IEDs and narcotics across international borders.
“The smuggled items were meant for use by the operatives of terror outfits and organised criminal gangs operating in various parts of the country for carrying out various terrorist acts, such as extortions to raise funds for KTF, targeted killings, recruitment of vulnerable youth, smuggling of arms and narcotics to India,” the official said while alleging that the probe further revealed that Dala, Maur and Gurjant had conspired to carry out such activities for furthering their terror agenda.
“The suspects whose premises were raided today had been working for these three men to promote violent criminal activities, and had been involved in smuggling weapons from Pakistan and recruitment of youth to carry out acts of violence and terror in the country at the behest of the KTF,” the official said, adding that these associates were also part of an extortion racket for raising funds for the banned outfit.