NIA conducts raids at multiple locations in J-K in terror attack case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday carried out searches at multiple locations in Jammu and Kashmir in a terror attack case, sources said.

The raids were learnt to be conducted mainly at locations of suspects in south Kashmir with the assistance of Jammu and Kashmir Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel.

Sources said that the raids were conducted in connection with a case pertaining to an attack on the security forces on March 11 this year in Darasgarh, Pulwama.

The NIA sleuths are learnt to have picked a few suspects from their residence for questioning in the case.

The development comes days after the NIA conducted raids at four places in the Union Territory including three locations in Baramulla and one in Handwara district in the cross LoC Trade and terror financing case.

The case pertains to the generation of additional profits through a cross LoC trade mechanism between Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and using funds so generated for fomenting terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

The trade was started in the year 2008 via two Trade Facilitation Centres (TFCs) located at Salamabad, Uri in Baramulla District and Chakan-da-Bagh in Poonch district.

On April 18, 2019, India indefinitely suspended cross-LoC trade at two points along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, following reports that it was being "misused" by elements from across the border to smuggle weapons, narcotics and fake currency.

The case was registered suo-moto by NIA on December 16, 2016.

The LoC trade across Chakan-Da-Bagh in the Poonch district of the Jammu region and Salamabad in the Baramulla district of north Kashmir was intended as a confidence-building measure (CBM) for the population living in Jammu and Kashmir and across the LoC in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (Pok).