Online ‘threat’ to scribes: police raids 12 locations in Kashmir

Police on Saturday said that it carried searches at 12 locations in Kashmir Valley in connection with the purported online threat issued to Valley-based journalists.

“During the course of investigation, each team comprised of 4-5 members and led by an Inspector/SI rank officer monitored by the SDPO concerned,” a police spokesperson said in a statement issued here. “The raids were supervised by SP South City Srinagar Lakshya Sharma-IPS and launched simultaneous searches at 12 locations across the valley including the houses of fugitives like Sajjad Gul, Mukhtar Baba, active (militants) of LeT (TRF) and other suspects in Srinagar, Anantnag and Kulgam Districts.”

The premises which were raided and searched, the olice said, belong to Mohd Rafi at Nigeen, Khalid Gul at Anantnag, Rashid Maqbool at Lal Bazar, 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.

“During search, all the legal formalities were followed professionally and consequent to the searches some suspects have been brought for examination and questioning,” the police said, adding, “The seized materials by the respective search teams include mobiles, laptops, memory cards, pen-drives & other digital devices, documents, bank papers, rubber stamps, passports, other suspect papers, cash, Saudi currency etc.”

Police have already filed as case (FIR No. 82/2022) under relevant sections of law at police station Sherghari. (GNS)