NIA conducts raids in Jammu and Kashmir in ‘drone delivery’ case: Officials

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday conducted searches at multiple locations, including Poonch district, in Jammu and Kashmir in a drone delivery case, said officials familiar with the development.

There have been over two dozen sightings of Pakistani drones making sorties to drop weapons and explosives in Jammu and Kashmir this year to carry out terror strikes in the Kashmir valley, according to investigators.

Though officials familiar with the development divulged that a man was picked up on Friday for questioning in Sawjiyan, an area close to the Line of Control, NIA has denied it.

A senior police officer said that a team of NIA had reached Poonch for probing a case.

He, however, feigned ignorance about the nature of the case saying, “we are providing police assistance to the NIA officials.”

People aware of the matter said the NIA team and Mandi police reached Sawjiyan, where they raided the house of Mohammad Zaman of village Dhanna.

“Two mobile phones were seized from him and they were confiscated. The individual was brought to the police station Sawjiyan for questioning,” they added.

On October 11, NIA carried out searches in at least eight districts and arrested a man in a terror funding case having links to suspicious activities of Al Huda Educational Trust in the Union Territory.

The searches were conducted in coordination with the Jammu and Kashmir police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

The searches were conducted at locations in Rajouri, Poonch, Jammu, Srinagar, Pulwama, Budgam, Shopian and Bandipora.

The case was reportedly registered suo-motu by NIA over the funding pattern and activities of Al Huda Educational Trust (AHET), which is functioning as a frontal entity for Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir. The Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir was declared as an ‘unlawful association’ under UAPA in 2019.