NIA launches crackdown on 'suspected cadres' after PAFF claims responsibility for Army truck attack in Rajouri

NEW DELHI: Days after People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), an alleged affiliate of Jaish e Mohammed, claimed responsibility for a IED attack on an Army truck in Rajouri that killed five personnel, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has launched a crackdown on suspected cadres, ‘hybrid’ terrorists engaged for one-off strikes and overground workers linked with “newly-formed offshoots of several major banned Pak-backed terror outfits”.
As part of the crackdown, NIA on Tuesday conducted searches and raids at the premises of trouble-makers linked to new-age terrorist outfits like The Resistance Front (TRF), PAAF, the United Liberation Front Jammu & Kashmir, Mujahideen Gazwat-ul-Hind, Jammu & Kashmir Freedom Fighters (JKFF), Kashmir Tigers,and others. These outfits are affiliated to proscribed outfits like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al-Badr, Al-Qaeda. The NIA has been investigating activities of the newly-floated terrorist groups in J&K.
Tuesday’s raids were spread across 12 locations in Anantnag, Srinagar, Budgam, Shopian, Kulgam and Baramulla districts of Kashmir regions, as well as in four locations in Poonch, Rajouri and Kishtwar districts of Jammu. The purpose is to probe the activities of OGWs and cadres working with the new terror outfits. “These cadres and workers have been found (to be) involved in collection and distribution of sticky bombs/magnetic bombs, IEDs, cash, drugs and small weapons, as well as in spreading activities relating to terror, violence and subversion in J&K. Investigations have further revealed that Pak-based operatives were using drones to deliver weapons, bombs, drugs etc. to their operatives and cadres in the Kashmir valley,” said an NIA statement issued after the raids.
Earlier on May 2, NIA had conducted raids at 12 locations in J&K, leading to the seizure of incriminating material and digital devices, in the terror conspiracy case it had registered suo motu in June 2022. The case relates to the hatching of a conspiracy, both physical and in cyber space, and plans by the proscribed terrorist organisations to unleash violent terrorist attacks in J&K with sticky bombs, IEDs and small arms. “The plans are part of a larger conspiracy by these terrorist outfits to commit acts of terror and violence, in association with local youth/overground workers, to disturb peace and communal disharmony in J&K,” NIA said on Tuesday.