BY RAJNISH SINGH
New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday said it has registered a total of 287 cases till September end and the highest number of the cases — 110 — are related to jihadi terrorism.
Of the other 177 cases, the NIA said 50 are related to insurgency in the northeast region, 48 of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN), 28 of left-wing extremism or Maoism, 15 related to Khalistan, one of human trafficking and the remaining 35 are miscellaneous matters.
Of the 110 jihadi terrorism cases, 32 are from Jammu and Kashmir, 22 have relation to Islamic State while 50 are in “others” category, NIA data said.
Sharing the data at the NIA’s National Conference of chiefs of the Anti-Terrorism Squads (ATS) and Special Task Forces (STF), NIA Inspector General Alok Mittal said that state police forces and other anti-terror squads helped a lot in all the 287 cases taken up by the agency.
“Of the 287 cases, the NIA has filed charge sheets in 212 cases. The court has announced its verdict in 57 cases in which it declared conviction in 51 cases. With this figure, the conviction figure in NIA cases is 90 per cent.”
The 32 cases investigated in Jammu and Kahsmir are mostly related to “fidayeen attacks” in which terrorists were killed on the spot and the investigation were done on the basis of materials seized there, Mittal said. “We have got major success in several cases.”
Beginning from the attack on Border Security Force (BSF) convoy in 2015 to 2016 Nagrota attack and 2018 Jhajjar Kotli case, the NIA officer said that they have identified the infiltration routes of terrorists through the Line of Control (LoC) or the International Border (IB).
All these routes were identified with the help of Global Positioning System (GPS) devices and other instruments recovered from the spot, Mittal said.
“We also identified the network of Over Ground Workers (OWGs) of the terrorist organisation and arrested them. Most of the OWGs have been charge sheeted.”
With the cases taken up by the NIA, the officer said it has come to light that the terrorists based in Jammu and Kashmir have tried to spread their network in other states to carry out terrorist activities.
“There were two cases in Punjab in September-October last year in which Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind cadre was involved. Weapons and explosives were provided to some students in a Engineering College in Jalandhar. Attack was made at a police station. In that case we have arrested several accused and have filed charge sheet.”
In one case in Assam, which the NIA took up in September last year, Mittal said a man from Hojai district came in contact of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).
“He was trained and the HM leadership tried to recruit people and establish their camps. But they were caught before they could carry out any big terror attack. Around 8-9 people have been charge sheeted in that case.”
The NIA had also registered a case related to Dukhtaran-e-Millat, a Kashmir-based Islamist organisation of women which has been indulge in anti-India activities, said the officer.
“The group of raising funds to organize protest and stone pelting. Several arrests were made in the case and charge sheet has also been filed.”
In another case, Mittal said, NIA found that some boys were radicalised and plans were made to send them to Pakistan for arms training. “Those boys were in contact with Hizbul Mujahideen’s commander. For the motivation of those boys, they were sent to meet one terrorist who was in jail. A prison official facilitated them to meet the terrorist.”
“But the plan was unearthed and foiled.”
(Rajnish Singh can be contacted at [email protected])
–IANS
rak/vd