Srinagar: State Investigation Agency began its crackdown on anti-national activities and arrested 10 Over Ground Workers of terror outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) in different raids carried out in southern and central Kashmir.
“These raids were primarily focused on the network of JeM. 10 identified persons who were part of OGW modules and taking instructions from JeM terrorist commanders have been arrested,” senior SIA officials told The New Indian.
State Investigation Agency (SIA) has been constituted with a mandate to investigate crimes connected with terrorism and secessionism. The SIA is also a nodal agency for coordinating with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other Central agencies to take measures as may be necessary for speedy and effective investigation and prosecution of terror-related cases.
“The module — whose members were organised into sub-modules in the form of verticals, so that in the event of detection of one member the bigger network does not the get compromised — had been painstakingly discovered through discreet surveillance. In this surveillance, corroborative intelligence capable of being converted to admissible evidence in court was used to ascertain and confirm the Jaish OGW membership of the individuals,” officials said.
“The module could be connected to other modules through higher levels of JESH leadership. Their discovery is likely as the investigation rolls out in coming days.”
SIA officials said that the detected portion of the module had been active in recruiting other young persons, arranging finances, transporting weapons in the South and Central Kashmir besides providing other logistic support.
In the searches, investigating agency officials said, besides arrests, cell phones, SIM cards, records to show the use of banking channels, and even a dummy pistol were seized. “Among arrested persons, there is one at whose house four terrorists had been killed on 4th of April 2020,” they said.
“This module was working towards furthering terror activities in the South and Central Kashmir,” SIA officials said. “The arrested members were mostly recruiting vulnerable school and college-going students as a few of them are students themselves. They were in close connection with the regular terrorists of JESH outfit and had been under surveillance for quite some time.”
The digital records, officials said, seized are being sent to FSL for evidence analysis and the arrested persons would be presented before the NIA court in Srinagar seeking permission for custodial questioning.
“It is believed the arrests and subsequent follow-up investigation would dent the upper ground network of Jaish and degrade its ability to undertake terror activities across the valley.”
Pertinently, all the officers-in-charge of the police stations have to mandatorily intimate the SIA immediately upon registration of terror-related cases, including those specified in the order, and also about such cases where any terror linkage surfaces during the investigation.
“It directed that all the officers-in-charge of the police stations shall mandatorily intimate the SIA immediately upon registration of militancy-related cases.”