NIA conducts searches in al-Qaeda case

The National Investigation Agency on Thursday conducted searches in five locations in Kashmir’s Shopian and Budgam districts in a case related to the al-Qaeda filed in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

“During the searches, large number of incriminating documents and digital devices have been seized,” a NIA spokesman said.

The NIA said the case pertained to Umar Halmandi, an al-Qaeda operative, who, along with other accused, had been radicalising and recruiting vulnerable persons for AQIS (Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent) and trying to raise Ansaar Gazwatul Hind (AGH) to carry out terrorist acts, for which they had already arranged arms and explosive substances.