Threat to journalists: J&K Police carry out searches in 3 districts
Searches conducted at Srinagar, Budgam and Pulwama in the wake of the November 12 threat through a blog
Jammu and Kashmir Police on Thursday conducted fresh searches at multiple locations across three districts and detained several people for questioning in connection with alleged threats issued to journalists on November 12 through a blog ‘The Kashmir Fight’.
The blog had named several journalists and accused them of calling banned outfit Jamaat-eIslami a terror organisation in their news reports. It had also blamed the news outlets for being “hand-in-glove with the government”.
“Searches are being carried out at multiple locations in Srinagar, Budgam and Pulwama districts in connection with online threats to journalists,” Srinagar police tweeted in the morning. Similar raids were conducted at 12 places across the Valley on Saturday.
A police spokesperson said houses of Showkat Mota, Khaksar Nadeeb Adnan and Saqib Magloo in Srinagar, Haji Hayat in Pampore and Ishfaq Reshi in Budgam were searched besides Hayat’s office in Srinagar and property of Asif Dar, who is abroad. “Incriminating articles were recovered,” he added.
“Some suspects have been detained for questioning. However, those on whose houses searches were carried earlier are being summoned on daily basis for examination. This is subsequent to the leads received from searches done a few days ago (November 19),” the spokesperson said.
“During the search, all the legal formalities and SOPs were followed and incriminating materials including mobiles, computers, laptops, pen drives, SIM cards, Jihadi literature, banking documents... US and Russian currency notes were recovered and seized,” the spokesperson added.
On November 12, an FIR was registered against terrorist handlers, active members and associates of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its offshoot The Resistance Front (TRF).
The case was registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act (UAPA) and Indian Penal Code sections 124-A (sedition), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief), 153-B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 506 (criminal intimidation). The police then conducted their first round of searches on Saturday. After the threats surfaced online, five journalists had resigned from their posts in a local newspaper.
The Editors Guild of India had last week condemned the threats, saying that the situation was a throwback of the 90s when journalists would find themselves in the “firing line of state authorities as well as terrorists”.
SIA conducts raids to identify overground workers
The Jammu and Kashmir state investigation agency (SIA) on Thursday conducted multiple raids across the UT in a terror case. The raids were conducted at Bandipora, Shopian, Srinagar, Kishtwar, Baramulla, Anantnag and Kupwara districts.
The agency in a statement said, “Sleuths conducted searches in the case pertaining to handlers of terrorist/secessionist organisation(s) sitting/ operating from across the border hatching a criminal conspiracy with members of proscribed terrorist organisation(s) operating in J&K, having created new modules of overground worker(s) for aiding/abetting/ assisting/harbouring and providing variety of logistic support with intention to further terrorist and unlawful activities in the UT.” It said these “modules of overground workers under a well-knit criminal conspiracy have been created to provide variety of support to terrorist organisations and fight a proxy war in J&K”.
“The modules are in continuous touch with handlers and members of terrorist outfits across the border. It is learnt that encrypted internet messaging platforms, besides other software applications, are being used for communication,” it added. The SIA said during the searches, incriminating material, mobile phones, electronic gadgets and other articles having bearing on the investigation have been recovered.