Srinagar: State Investigation Agency (SIA) have arrested ten “identified” persons for allegedly working as Over Ground Workers (OGWs) of Jash-e-Mohammad during raids in south and central Kashmir, officials said on Wednesday.
However, the details of their identification were not made public.
NIA alike, the SIA was constituted recently to speed up investigations on militancy cases and ‘secessionism’ as per officials.
More Read
“The SIA conducted overnight raids at ten different locations in various districts of south and central Kashmir,” SIA said in a statement.
“These raids were primarily focused on the network of JeM. Ten identified persons who were part of OGW modules and taking instructions from (JeM) commanders have been arrested,” it said.
The detected portion of the module, it said, had been active in recruiting other young persons, arranging finances, transporting weapons in south and central Kashmir besides providing other logistic support.
“During searches, cell phones, SIM cards, bank records and a dummy pistol were seized.”
The arrested members were mostly recruiting vulnerable “school and college” going students as a few of them are students themselves, the SIA said.
They were in close connection with the regular militants of JeM outfit and had been under surveillance for quite some time, the SIA said.
“The digital records seized is 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,” the SIA said.
“It is believed the arrests and subsequent follow up investigation would dent the upper ground network of (JeM) and degrade its ability to undertake (militant) activities across valley.”
(GNS)
