SRINAGAR: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested nine persons during raids in militancy-hit Kashmir over a conspiracy case.
An NIA spokesman said the sleuths on Wednesday carried out raids at two locations in Srinagar and arrested five persons - Mohammad Haneef Chiralu and Arif Farooq Bhat, both residents of Srinagar; Hafeez, resident of Budgam; Owais Dar resident of Pulwama, and Mateen Bhat, resident of Shopian.
During raids at 16 locations in Pulwama, Srinagar and Shopian districts on Tuesday, the central agency had arrested four persons - Waseem Ahmed Sofi, Tariq Ahmed Dar, Bilal Ahmed Mir alias Bilal Fufu and Tariq Ahmed Bafanda, all Srinagar residents.
Of the nine arrested, Tariq Ahmad had been imprisoned for almost a decade in the 2005 Delhi serial blasts case. He was acquitted in 2017. The NIA is probing the case pertaining to conspiracy for undertaking violent acts in J&K and other major cities by cadres of Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al Badr and other outfits and their affiliates.
The NIA spokesman said that during the raids, the sleuths seized "electronic devices, incriminating jehadi documents and records of suspicious financial transactions". Preliminary probe has revealed that arrested persons are associates of proscribed organisations and have been supporting terrorists in their nefarious designs, he said.
Panel in Srinagar to probe harassment of journalists
A Fact Finding Committee (FFC) of the Press Council of India (PCI) on arrived in Srinagar on Wednesday on a three-day visit, to look into allegations of harassment of journalists. The three-member committee includes Prakash Dubey, convener and group editor of Daink Bhaskar, Gurbir Singh of The New Indian Express, and Dr Suman Gupta, editor of Jan Morcha.
"Any journalist or persons of media fraternity who are desired to meet the team can contact on: 9419007064," an official spokesman said. On September 29, PCI constituted the FFC to look into the harassment of journalists in the UT.