The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday said that it clamped down harder on terror outfits and their offshoots/affiliates operating in the Kashmir valley.

The NIA said tharlt its agency conducted a series of raids in Anantnag, Srinagar, Pulwama, Shopian and Budgam districts of Kashmir, and seized incriminating material/documents etc.

According to its spokesman, NIA launched extensive searches at 13 locations of sympathizers/cadres, hybrid militants and Overground Workers (OGWs) linked with the newly-formed offshoots and affiliates of several proscribed Pak-backed militant organisations, including Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al-Badr, Al-Qaeda, etc.

The raids were part of the ongoing investigations of NIA in the militant conspiracy case, involving the activities of OGWs and cadres in support of various newly-launched outfits, such as 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, he said.

Besides militant and violent activities, these cadres and workers had been found involved in collection and distribution of sticky bombs/magnetic bombs, IEDs, funds, narcotics and arms/ammunition, he said.

NIA investigations had further revealed that Pak-based operatives were involved in delivery of arms/ammunition, explosives, narcotics etc. to these cadres and workers in the Kashmir valley via drones. Social media platforms were also being widely used by the operatives across the border to connect with OGWs and cadres in Kashmir, he said.

NIA had registered the case (RC-05/2022/NIA/JMU) suo motu on 21st June 2022. The matter related to conspiracy and plans, hatched physically as well in cyberspace, by these proscribed militant organisations. The conspirators aimed to unleash violent militant attacks in J&K with sticky bombs, IEDs and small arms etc, as part of a larger conspiracy to commit acts of terror and violence by radicalising local youth and mobilising and deploying overground workers. In connection with the investigation of this case, since the beginning of this month, NIA has conducted more than 70 searches in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, reads the statement