Terror threat on Amarnath Yatra: Relatives of killed, active terrorists under NIA scanner

Amid the threat to Amarnath Yatra, National Investigation Agency is working on three main angles during the probe of terror conspiracy hatched by terror outfits to target the ongoing Amarnath Yatra. NIA is probing relatives of killed/ active terrorists who are possible targets of terror groups planning an attack on Amarnath Yatra.

Sources privy to the development said that terror groups are eyeing the family members of terrorists who have been killed by security forces in various encounters and are trying to radicalise them to join terror ranks to carry out terror strikes. Sources also say that terror commanders from Jammu and Kashmir who crossed over to Pakistan are also trying to activate their family members and relatives to loop them into terror activities.

“This first came into being during the investigation of Udhampur IED Blast case in which terrorist who carried out this attack turned out to be the son of killed terrorist and wasn’t even on the list of security forces but was radicalised using social media to carry out IED attack which killed a person and injured over dozen in Udhampur’s Slathia Chowk in March this year. Since then, Police is keeping a check on all those from families of killed terrorists to prevent any untoward incident,” said an official on the condition of anonymity.

NIA is also looking into the threat that is being emerged by social media applications, Apps like Telegram and others are being used for radicalising youth and the agency is looking for possible suspects, even some of them have been raided by NIA too.

NIA in its FIR has said, “Reliable information has been received that cadres and Over Ground Workers (OGWs) of various proscribed terrorist organizations i.e., Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al-Badr and other terror outfits including their affiliates / off-shoots operating under pseudo names such as "The Resistance Front (TRF)", "United Liberation Front Jammu & Kashmir (UL J&K)", "Mujahideen Gazwat-ul-Hind (MGH)", "Jammu & Kashmir Freedom Fighters (JKFF)", Kashmir Tigers, PAAF and others in cohorts with their commanders based in Pakistan are actively involved in collection and distribution of huge consignments of "narcotics", "cash", "small arms weapons", "Improvised Explosive Devices" and "other similar explosives like "Remote control operated sticky bombs/magnetic bombs" supplied through drones as well as assembled locally, in order to execute terrorist attacks in the UT of J&K by way of targeting minorities, security personnel and religious pilgrimages including holy Shri Amaranthji Yatra, Shri Vaishno Devi Yatra and other similar religious activities”.

It further added that for the above purpose, they are conspiring both physically and through cyberspace by using secured encrypted social media messaging applications to create communal disharmony, terrorist attack and wage war against the Government of India.