NIA raids four locations in Kashmir in 2018 terror training case

The NIA on Wednesday carried out raids at four locations in the Kashmir valley in connection with terror operatives allegedly motivating local youths to join the ranks of the banned Pak-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), officials said.

The searches were conducted at the premises of Bakhtiyar Mujeev Mullaha in Srinagar's Rajbagh area and at the houses of Zahoor Ahmed Sheikh, Bashir Ahmad Sheikh and Mohd Afzal Mir in Badgam, a spokesperson for the federal agency said.

He said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) team was assisted by the CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir police during the raids.

The agency recovered "incriminating documents", including photographs of militants, five mobile phones, a laptop and a hard disk, memory and SIM cards and some pen drives after the raids, the spokesperson said.

He said the people who were searched are being questioned.

The NIA had filed a case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) last year after taking cognisance of an FIR registered against alleged operative Munid Hamid Bhat at a police station in Kulgam.

Bhat was arrested, the spokesperson said, for "subversive activities" who was motivating youth to join LeT and was allegedly organising their travel to Pakistan for terror training on the basis of valid travel documents (VTD) on recommendation of separatist leaders based in the valley.