Islamic State ‘conspiracy’: NIA conducts multiple raids in Kashmir, detains six
SRINAGAR: National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday conducted raids at multiple locations across Kashmir Valley and arrested six persons including head of an Islamic seminary in connection with a ‘jihadi terrorism’ case.
The agency said that the case was registered by it on June 29 this year under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 in connection with the “conspiracy of the ISIS (Islamic State) to radicalize and recruit impressionable youth in the country to wage violent jihad against the Indian state.”
This comes a day after the J&K government sacked its eleven employees including two sons of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen chief Muhammad Yusuf Shah alias Syed Salahuddin on charges of being involved in anti-India activities. The Hizb chief's sons were fired based on the investigations done by the NIA in an alleged terror funding case, the government had said.
The NIA sources said that its teams assisted by J&K police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) raided 'Siraj-ul- Uloom’ seminary in Srinagar's Dalal Mohalla, Nawab Bazaar area and seized some office records and a laptop and also took its chairman Adnaan Ahmad Nadvi into custody. The institution is reportedly affiliated with an Islamic seminary of Uttar Pradesh. Soon raids were conducted in Pushroo, Sunsooma, and Achabal villages of Anantnag and five persons identified as Javaid Ahamad Mir, Umar Bhat, Ovais Ahmad Bhat, Tanveer Ahmad Bhat and Zeeshan Ameen Malik were detained.
The NIA in a statement here said the searches were conducted at seven locations in Anantnag and Srinagar districts in “ISIS voice of Hind case” registered by it in New Delhi under sections 124A, 153A, and 153 B of IPC and sections 17, 18, 18B, 38, 39 and 40 of UA(P) Act 1967.
“In order to execute its nefarious plan, an organized campaign has been launched over the cyber space which is supplemented by on ground (militant) financing activities,” it said.
The statement read, “ISIS operating from various conflict zones along with ISIS cadres in India, by assuming pseudo- online identities, have created a network wherein ISIS related propaganda material is disseminated for radicalizing and recruiting members to the fold of ISIS.” It added, “In this connection an India-centric online propaganda magazine ‘the Voice of Hind’ (VOH) is published on monthly basis with an aim to incite and radicalize impressionable youth by projecting a skewed narrative of imagined injustices in India to arouse a feeling of alienation and communal hatred.”
The NIA claimed that the searches led to recovery and seizure of a large number of “incriminating documents and digital devices such as mobile phones, tablets, laptop, hard disks and T-Shirts having ISIS logo.”
