NIA raids 16 places in J&K in connection with IS-Voice of Hind and Bathindi IED recovery cases

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday carried out searches at 16 places in Jammu and Kashmir in connection with two cases — ‘Islmaic State-Voice of Hind’ case and the ‘Bathindi IED recovery’ case.

The former case relates to publication of an e-zine Voice of Hind by the terrorist organisation since February 2020 with the aim to ‘radicalize Muslim youth towards Jihad’.

The case was registered on 29 June this year in connection with the conspiracy of the proscribed terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS) to radicalise and recruit impressionable Muslim youth in India to wage violent jihad against India.

The latter case was related to a conspiracy foiled by security forces to conduct a blast in Jammu. Authorities had recovered at leat 5-kg of IED (improvised explosive device) from a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist in Bathindi on 27 June.

“The conspiracy by the LeT was aimed at causing an explosion in Jammu using the IED. Investigation revealed that Pakistan-based handlers and their associates based in J&K are planning terrorist activities using the pseudo-acronym TRF [The Resistance Front> so as to maintain plausible deniability,” an NIA spokesman had said at the time.

16 locations raided

The anti-terror agency carried out simultaneous searches in various districts in the Union Territory with the assistance of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Jammu and Kashmir Police.

On Sunday, the NIA raided the house of one Nayeem Ahmad Bhat , a resident of Aaripora Zewan, who works as a driver at the Hassan Road Construction Company. The second raid was laid on the residence of Mushtaq Ahmad Dar in Baghi Nand Singh Chattabal; total five mobile phones were seized from the suspects during the raids.

It raided the house of Suhail Ahmad Bhat, resident of Solina Payeen, PS Shergarhi and detained Bahauddin Sahab Nowhatta from the residence of Tahir Ahmad Najar and also seized one laptop and a mobile phone from him.

The NIA team also searched the house of Afhan Parvez Jarabi in Anzimar, Khanyar, who deals in sports item.

NIA said that IS terrorists operating from various conflict zones along with IS cadres in India have created a network by assuming pseudo-online identities wherein ISIS-related propaganda material (VOH) is disseminated for radicalising and recruiting members to the fold of IS.

The NIA had conducted multiple searches in Jammu and Kashmir on 11 July this year in the same case and had arrested three accused — Umar Nisar, Tanveer Ahmad Bhat and Rameez Ahmad Lone — all residents of Achabal area of Anantnag district.  According to a CNN-News18 report , Umar Nisar was the self-styled Amir of ISHP (ISIS Hind Province) in India and was an important link between the ISIS operatives in India and Afghan-Pak-based ISIS handlers. Nisar was in regular contact with top leadership and was taking directions from Aijaz Ahangar, the Wali of ISJK/HP and an old prodigy of Pakistan ISI, originally hailing from Srinagar since 2017.

The dreaded terror outfit has been releasing an online monthly India-centric magazine by the name of ‘Voice of Hind’ (VOH) since February 2020. VOH is being disseminated through intricate network of pseudonymous online entities and channels masking their real identity by misuse of VPN. After investigations Indian mobile numbers were traced to be associated with such accounts.

A cyber entity ‘Abu Hazir Al Badri’ a key operative of ISIS who is involved in the translation of ‘Voice of Hind’ to South Indian languages and its further dissemination was identified as Jufri Jawhar Damudi, and arrested on 6 August this year in a joint operation of NIA and Karnataka Police.

The agency said that the cyber ID was also used to radicalise and recruit people.

“Jufri Jawhar is the younger brother of Adnan Hasan Damudi who was arrested for ISIS-related activities in 2016 and is currently under detention in a separate NIA case,” the agency said.

Jufri Jawhar Damudi was in touch with ISIS leadership, currently operating out of Afghanistan-Pakistan (Af-Pak) region who provided him propaganda material and also gave directions for its dissemination.

“For this purpose, Jufri had created multiple pseudonymous IDs on encrypted chat platforms and was also a member of various online propaganda channels of ISIS,” the agency added.

However, the second case in which the NIA has been conducting raids is linked to Bathindi IED recovery in which the agency had carried out searches on 21 September this year at eight locations in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag, Baramulla, Kulgam, Srinagar, Doda and Kishtwar districts.

The case was initially registered on 27 June this year at Bahu Fort district Jammu relating to the recovery of five kg IED from a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist in Jammu’s Bathindi area on the same day.

The conspiracy by LeT was aimed at causing an explosion in Jammu using the IED. NIA had re-registered the case on 19 July, and had earlier arrested three persons in this case.

The investigation has revealed that Pakistan based handlers of proscribed terror outfit LeT and their associates based in J-K were planning terrorist activities in the Union Territory using the pseudo-acronym ‘The Resistance Front’, an offshoot of LeT, so as to maintain plausible deniability.

On Sunday raids were conducted across seven locations in Srinagar, Sopore and Anantnag. TRF commander Sajjad Gul’s house was also raided in Srinagar.

With input from agencies