Breaking the chain in J&K: NIA busts TRF, ISIS modules

New Delhi, Oct 12: The National Investigation Agency has conducted multiple raids over the past week and arrested terrorists of both the Islamic State as well as The Resistance Front.

In addition to this scores of terror sympathisers have been detained in Jammu and Kashmir, following the killing of civilians. The killings were claimed by a little known terror group The Resistance Front which is affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.

NIA had received information that proscribed terrorist organisation Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has hatched a conspiracy to radicalise and recruit impressionable Muslim youth in India to wage violent Jihad against the Indian state and in order to execute its nefarious plan an organised campaign has been launched over the cyber space which is supplemented by on ground terror financing activities.

ISIS terrorists operating from various conflict zones along with ISIS cadres in India, by assuming pseudo- online identities, have created a network wherein ISIS related propaganda material is disseminated for radicalizing and recruiting members into ISIS fold, the NIA said.

Investigation has further revealed that the arrested accused were associated with Pakistan and Afghanistan based foreign ISIS operatives. Certain other associates of arrested accused based in Kashmir are involved in on-ground and online activities of ISIS, including in content creation and translation of India centric ISIS propaganda magazine Voice of Hind, the agency also said.

Official sources tell OneIndia that there has been a crackdown, following the killings. Unknown pistol wielding terrorists have been carrying out the killings. It is important to break the chain to stop the killings. There is very little intelligence on these persons and hence they have not been profiled, which makes the job of tracking them difficult, the official cited above said.

With the Indian Army enhancing border patrolling, the number of infiltrations have gone down drastically. This has led to these Pakistan backed terrorists to carry out attacks in which they are identifying soft target an official also said.

Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency raided multiple locations in Jammu and Kashmir. The agency has also arrested two terrorists of The Resistance Front, which had claimed responsibility for the killings of the civilians.

The raids were conducted with the Jammu and Kashmir police and the CRPF officials at seven locations in Kulgam, Srinagar and Baramulla. The case was first registered following the recovery of an IED from a Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist in Jammu. He had planned on indulging in acts of terror. The case was later taken over by the NIA and three operatives of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba were arrested.

The probe revealed that handlers based in Pakistan and their associates based in J&K had conspired to cause a series of attacks with an intention of harming the general public. They had planned that after the attacks the responsibility for the terrorist acts so committed would be taken by the pseudo-acronym TRF so as to maintain plausible deniability and evade law enforcement agencies.

During the searches conducted many digital devices including mobiles, pen drives, data storage devices and other incriminating materials have been recovered.

During course of searches conducted two TRF operatives namely Tawseef Ahmed Wani and Faiz Ahmed Khan have been arrested for their involvement in the conspiracy.