NIA conducts raids across Jammu & Kashmir in terror funding case

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A day after two unidentified terrorists were neutralized in Kashmir’s Anantnag district,  the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday carried out raids at multiple locations across Jammu and Kashmir in connection with a terror funding case. The NIA has detained over five people with links to terrorist activities.

Officials in the anti-terror agency informed that the raids were conducted in Anantnag, Srinagar, Awantipora, Baramulla and some other places in connection with a case registered 10 days ago relating to the radicalization in the Indian subcontinent.

Besides, NIA, Intelligence Bureau, RAW (Research and Analysis Wing), and the Jammu and Kashmir police are jointly involved in search operations which began in Jammu and Kashmir’s multiple districts in the early morning.

As per the official, the case pertains to online radicalization, and that the agency has got inputs about the involvement of some foreign-based handlers behind the radicalization process.

The raids were based on inputs received from some people detained by the security forces as well as investigating agencies involved in the case.

The raid is taking place a day after 11 Jammu and Kashmir government employees, including two sons of most wanted terrorist Syed Salahuddin, were removed for their alleged involvement in terror-funding activities.

The agency officials, requesting anonymity, said that the NIA has found out some inputs about terror funding trails of both the persons who have been found involved in raising, receiving, collecting, and transferring funds through hawala transactions for terror activities of Hizbul Mujahideen.

After the secret terror operation came to light, the services of the 11 Jammu and Kashmir government employees were terminated under Article 311(2)(c) of the Constitution, under which no inquiry is held. The action was taken following a recommendation by a designated committee in the Union Territory for looking into such cases.

As per inputs, four out of the 11 employees were working in the Education Department, two in Jammu and Kashmir Police, one in Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, and one each in Agriculture, Skill Development, Power, and Health Departments.

Of these 11 employees dismissed, four are from Anantnag, three from Budgam, one each from Baramulla, Srinagar, Pulwama, and Kupwara.

The sources said that the designated committee in Jammu and Kashmir for scrutinizing and recommending cases, in its second and fourth meeting, recommended three and eight cases respectively for dismissal from the government service.

The government sources said that three officials recommended for dismissal in the second meeting of the committee include an Orderly of ITI, Kupwara, who was an overground worker of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba. He was providing information to the terrorists about the movement of security forces and abetting and harboring terrorists to carry out activities in a clandestine manner.