Raids conducted at high-security Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu, district jail in Poonch

The Counter-Intelligence Unit of the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday conducted searches in the high-security Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu and the district jail in the border district of Poonch, officials said.

A raid was conducted at the central jail Kot Bhalwal, which houses hardcore Pakistani and local terrorists, besides notorious criminals, in the morning, followed by a search operation at the Poonch jail later in the afternoon, they said.

Officials said the jail authorities extended full cooperation during the searches, which were conducted as part of an operation to look for terror networks reportedly being operated from inside the prisons.

The operation comes in the backdrop of a major crackdown in the Kashmir valley following the recent unearthing of a “white-collar” terror network run by a group of doctors and the subsequent blast in a car in Delhi’s Red Fort area on November 10 that left several people dead.