SRINAGAR: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday carried out a series of raids at 12 locations in militancy-hit Kashmir as part of its ongoing investigation into the floating of new offshoots by banned Pakistan-backed militant outfits that are looking to foment militancy and trouble in J&K. An NIA spokesman said 12 locations in four districts of Kashmir — Kulgam, Bandipora, Shopian and Pulwama — were raided by NIA sleuths.
The NIA officials were assisted by police and paramilitary personnel during the raids. “The locations raided were residential premises of hybrid militants and Overground Workers linked with the newly-formed offshoots and affiliates of the banned terrorist outfits. Premises of sympathisers and cadres of these organisations were also searched extensively in the raids,” the NIA spokesman said.
He said many digital devices containing large volumes of incriminating data were recovered during these searches. “These will be subjected to thorough scrutiny to unravel the details of the terrorist conspiracy.”
The NIA had launched an investigation into the militant conspiracy of floating new off-shoots of militant outfits last year to foment trouble in J&K after registering a suo moto case on June 21, 2022.
The newly floated outfits being probed by NIA include — The Resistance Front (TRF), United Liberation Front Jammu & Kashmir (ULFJ&K), Mujahideen Gazwat-ul-Hind (MGH), Jammu & Kashmir Freedom Fighters (JKFF), Kashmir Tigers, PAAF, among others.
These outfits, according to NIA, are affiliated with Pakistan-backed organisations like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al-Badr, Al-Qaeda, etc, which have been banned by the Indian government.
Some of the newly floated outfits are active in Kashmir and a few of them are active in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch districts of the Jammu region. “The conspiracy under investigation links to plotting by banned outfits in both physical and cyberspace,” the NIA spokesman said.