NIA raids 7 sites in Kashmir valley, detains five

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 11

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday raided seven locations in Srinagar and Anantnag in south Kashmir in connection with a terror funding case involving circulation of propaganda material by banned terror group IS.

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Terror funding case

• Raids were conducted in a terror case involving circulation of IS propaganda material
• NIA recovered incriminating documents, mobile phones, laptops, T-shirts with IS logo

NIA officials said it was a joint operation with the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research & Analysis Wing (RAW). The agency detained five youths allegedly for having links with the terror group. Searches were carried out at locations across Jammu and Kashmir, including Anantnag, Srinagar, Awantipora, and Baramulla.

The case was registered on June 29, but the suspects had been under surveillance for the past three months, they said, adding that online radicalisation had been discovered in the Indian subcontinent, with connections to Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

The officials said the agency detained and interrogated five persons, including Umar Bhat, who is from Mohallah Achabal in South Kashmir and in his 20s.

IB sources claimed the youth had become the face of the print editions of online propaganda magazine “The Voice of Hind (VOH)” aimed at inciting Indian Muslims against the government and the state.

To execute its nefarious plan, an organised campaign had been launched in cyberspace, which was supplemented by on-ground terror financing activities, they said.

During the raids, the NIA recovered a large number of incriminating documents and digital devices such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops and hard disks, and T-shirts with ISIS logo.