NIA conducts raids in Kashmir in connection with Lucknow Al-Qaeda case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out fresh raids in Kashmir on Thursday in connection with an Al-Qaeda case registered in Lucknow of Uttar Pradesh. The probe agency claimed that in the searches, it seized incriminating documents and digital devices.

A spokesperson of the NIA said searches were conducted at five locations in south Kashmir’s Shopian and central Budgam districts of Kashmir in connection with investigation of case RC-02/2021/NIA-LKW (Al- Qaeda Case Lucknow, UP).

“The case pertains to Umar Halmandi, an Al-Qaeda operative, who, along with other accused, had been radicalising and recruiting vulnerable persons for AQIS (Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent) and trying to raise Ansaar Gajwatul Hind (AGH) to carry out terrorist acts for which they had already arranged arms and explosive substances,” the spokesperson said.

The case was initially registered as FIR No. 10/2021 dated 11.07.2021, PS-ATS, Uttar Pradesh and the NIA had re-registered the same as RC-02/2021/NIA/LKW, on 29.07.2021, the spokesperson said.

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The raids came just two days after human rights activist Khurram Parvez was arrested by the NIA and booked under stringent provisions of the anti-terror law UAPA and the IPC that carry a maximum punishment of the death sentence.

Parvez is the programme coordinator of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society and the chairperson of Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances. Rights activists have condemned the government’s move to arrest Parvez.

Since early 2017, the NIA has been continuously carrying out raids in Kashmir in connection with alleged terror funding, fidayeen (suicide) attack cases and the agency has arrested and questioned dozens of people in the past four years.

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