Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Kashmir Vijay Kumar on Saturday said that investigation into the threats to journalists is under full swing.
He also said that the culprits would be brought to justice soon.
A statement issued by Jammu and Kashmkr Police issued said, “In the wake of recent threat issued to journalists, Police conducted simultaneous searches at various locations across Kashmir.”
The Police statement added: “A case vide FIR No 82/2022 under relevant sections of law was registered at Police Station Sherghari against terror handlers, active terrorists, and terrorist associates of proscribed terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and its offshoot The Resistance Front (TRF) for online publication and dissemination of direct threat letters to journalists and reporters based in Kashmir.”
It further said that during the course of investigation, each team comprised four to five members and was led by an Inspector or a Sub Inspector rank officer monitored by the SDPO concerned. It said that SP South City Srinagar Lakshya Sharma supervised the raids.
The Police statement said, “Simultaneous searches were carried at 12 locations across Kashmir including the houses of fugitives like Sajjad Gul, active TRF terrorist Mukhtar Baba and suspects in Srinagar, Anantnag, and Kulgam districts.”
“The premises which were raided and searched belonged to Muhammad Rafi at Nigeen, Khalid Gul at Anantnag, Rashid Maqbool at Lal Bazaar, Momin Gulzar at Eidgah, Basit Dar at Kulgam, Sajjad Kralyari at Rainawari, Gowhar Geelani at Soura, Qazi Shibli at Anantnag, Sajjad Sheikh alias Sajjad Gul at HMT Srinagar, Mukhtar Baba at Nowgam, Waseem Khalid at Rawalpora, and Adil Pandit at Khanyar, Srinagar,” the statement read.
Meanwhile, Police said, “Earlier, in a big victory for the Indian law enforcement agencies, the United States had shut down pro-Pakistan ‘kashmirfight.wordpress.com’ blog that ran smear campaigns and profiled prominent personalities in Kashmir.”
“The terror outfits based out of PoK would use the blog to threaten journalists, bureaucrats, and social activists by accusing them of being pro-India. The effort to get the blog suspended was on since 2018 and J&K Police had written several letters to WordPress to take it down. It also submitted several proofs, which showed that it was being used to target people in Kashmir. The CID wing of the J&K Police played a major role in gathering the information, which established the connection between the blog and assassinations of prominent Kashmiris,” they added.
During searches, the police said, all the legal formalities were followed professionally and consequent to the searches some suspects had been brought for examination and questioning.
It said that the seized materials by the respective search teams include mobiles, laptops, memory cards, pen-drives and other digital devices, documents, bank papers, rubber stamps, passports, other suspect papers, cash, and Saudi currency.
The statement said that the investigation in the case was in full swing and people were requested to bring any information that was relevant to this case into the notice of Police.
