The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday conducted searches at Doda and Jammu Districts of Jammu and Kashmir in connection with the Jamaat-e-Islami J&K Terror Financing Case.
The NIA said it conducted searches at premises of six suspects in Doda and one suspect in Jammu in the case relating to Jamaat-e-Islami J&K, which even after its declaration as Unlawful Association in 2019, continues to raise funds in various forms purportedly for charitable purposes.
“These funds are however being diverted to terrorist organisations, such as Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba etc for promoting terrorist activities in Kashmir valley as well as the rest of India,” the agency said in a statement. The case was registered suo-moto on February 5, 2021. Earlier, the agency had filed a chargesheet against four persons in the case. The searches conducted during the day led to recovery of incriminating literature, receipts of funds raised by JEI J&K, bank and property related documents, and electronic devices. Further investigations in the case are in progress, it added.
The case relates to the activities of the JeI members, who have been collecting funds domestically and abroad through donations, particularly in the form of 'Zakat, Mowda and Bait-ul-Mal' purportedly to further charity and other welfare activities, but are using the money for "violent and secessionist" "JeI has also been motivating impressionable youth of Kashmir and recruiting new members (Rukuns) in the Union territory to participate in disruptive secessionist activities," the NIA had said.
In February 2019, the Centre had banned JeI for five years under anti-terror laws on grounds that it was "in close touch" with militant outfits and was expected to "escalate secessionist movement" in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir.
A notification banning the group under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act was issued by the Union Home Ministry following a high-level meeting on security chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Hundreds of JeI activists were arrested in a major crackdown across Jammu and Kashmir following the ban, which came just months ahead of the abrogation of the special status of the erstwhile State and its bifurcation into two Union territories on August 5, 2019.