The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday raided multiple locations in the Kashmir valley, questioned locals and seized digital devices in a case regarding online radicalisation by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in India.
“The NIA conducted simultaneous searches in Srinagar and Anantnag at seven locations. During the searches, a large number of incriminating documents and digital devices such as mobile phones, tablets, laptop, hard disks and T-Shirts having ISIS logo were recovered and seized,” said an NIA spokesman.
A case was registered by the NIA on June 29, 2021, under Sections 124A, 153A, and153B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 17, 18, 18B, 38, 39 and 40 of the UAPA Act 1967 in connection with the conspiracy of the terrorist organisation ISIS to radicalise and recruit impressionable youth in India and wage violent jihad against the Indian state.
The NIA spokesman said an India-centric online propaganda magazine, The Voice of Hind (VOH), is published on a monthly basis with an aim to incite and radicalise impressionable youth by projecting a skewed narrative of imagined injustices in India and arouse a feeling of alienation and communal hatred.
“An investigation in the case continues,” the spokesman said.
According to the NIA, in order to execute the plan, an organised campaign has been launched over the cyberspace, which is supplemented by on-ground terror financing activities.
“ISIS terrorists operating from various conflict zones along with ISIS cadres in India, by assuming pseudo- online identities, have created a network wherein ISIS-related propaganda material is disseminated for radicalising and recruiting members to the fold of ISIS,” the NIA said.
