Raids at residences of scribes over online threats to journos in Kashmir

Police on Thursday carried out raids at multiple locations, including residences of some journalists, in three districts of Jammu and Kashmir in connection with the online threats to scribes given by terror outfits.

"Searches are going on in multiple locations in Srinagar, Badgam and Pulwama districts in connection with 'online journalists threat' case," Srinagar police tweeted.

According to police, the searches carried out on Thursday were subsequent to the leads received from similar searches done few days ago in the same case.

'KashmirFight', an online page used by terror outfits, had issued a hitlist of journalists accusing them of working at the behest of security and intelligence agencies.

At least five journalists, all working for local media outlets, have since resigned from their jobs.

Giving details, a police spokesman said raids were carried out at seven locations in Srinagar, Budgam and Pulwama.

"The premises which were raided today and subsequently searched belong to Showkat Mota in Srinagar, Khaksar Nadeeb Adnan in Srinagar, Haji Hayat in Pampore, Haji Hayat's Office in Srinagar, Ishfaq Reshi in Budgam, Asif Dar (based abroad) and Saqib Magloo in Srinagar. Some among above mentioned suspects have been detained for questioning. However, those on whose houses searches were carried earlier are being summoned on daily basis for examination," the spokesman said.

During the searches, all the legal formalities and standard operating procedures were followed professionally and incriminating materials including mobiles, computers, laptops, pendrives, SIM cards, jihadi literature, banking documents, dummy gun, and US and Russian currency notes were recovered and seized by the respective teams, the spokesman said.

He said the investigation in the instant case is going on vigorously and is in an advance stage.

"General public is requested to cooperate with police and bring any information relevant to this case in the notice of Srinagar police," he added.