Srinagar, Aug 6 (IANS) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday raided the house of an arrested overground worker (OGW) of terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar city.

Officials said that the team of NIA sleuths raided a house in Rustum Colony of Ikhrajpora near Jawahar Nagar in Srinagar city in connection with the ongoing investigation in a terror-related case.

“NIA team assisted by local police and the CRPF carried out the raid on the residential house of Hashim Farooq, son of Farooq Ahmad Mir, an OGW presently lodged in Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu after detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA),” said the officials.

Army, security forces and J&K Police have been carrying out aggressive anti-terrorist operations in the union territory after the April 22 terror attack in Baisaran meadow of Pahalgam by Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists in which 26 people, including 25 tourists and a local, were killed.

All three hardcore Pakistani LeT terrorists responsible for the Pahalgam terror attack, including their commander, Suleman Shah, Abu Hamza and Jibran Bhai, were killed by the joint forces on July 28 at the foot of Mahadev mountain peak in the upper reaches of Dachigam national park in Srinagar.

The operation to eliminate the perpetrators of the Pahalgam terror attack was code-named ‘Operation Mahadev’ by the Army.

While high-profile terror-related crimes like targeted killings of pilgrims, security personnel, policemen, non-locals and hawala money rackets are investigated by the NIA, the on-ground anti-terror operations are the responsibility of the deployed Army, CAPFs and the local police.

J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha has been carrying out periodic security review meetings. During these meetings, the L-G has been giving clear instructions to dismantle the entire ecosystem of terror, including terrorists, their OGWs and sympathisers, rather than focusing just on the physical elimination of the gun-toting terrorists.

L-G Manoj Sinha has repeatedly said that funds generated through drug smuggling and hawala money rackets are finally used to sustain terrorism in J&K, and these activities are part of the terror ecosystem that has hostaged peace, progress and development during the last 30 years.

–IANS

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