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In a massive crackdown on the terrorist and organised criminal syndicate nexus, the National Investigation of India (NIA) on Tuesday raided multiple locations in Punjab and Rajasthan.
Extensive searches were conducted across 14 locations in Punjab and two in Rajasthan. The raids started in the morning in the districts of Amritsar, Bhatinda, Moga, Sangrur and Kapurthala in Punjab and Churu and Hanumangarh in Rajasthan. Several persons were taken in for questioning and examination for their "involvement in terrorist activities". Several digital devices, mobile phones and incriminating documents were seized, which are being examined. The searches are expected to provide vital leads in the ongoing investigations into the terrorist-organised criminal syndicate nexus. NIAs investigations are part of efforts to destroy the nexus between terrorists, gangsters, and drug smugglers. NIA's goal is to dismantle the nexus's infrastructure, including funding channels. The agency carried out the search operation since early Tuesday morning in close coordination with state police forces. The raids are being conducted based on some specific inputs. The places searched are residential and other premises of the suspects having links with Khalistani supporters and those involved in criminal nexus. "NIA is conducting searches in ongoing investigations against Khalistan and organised criminal nexus at 14 locations in Punjab and 2 locations in Rajasthan. Subsequent to searches, six people are being examined for their involvement in terrorist activities," the agency said earlier. The persons picked for questioning are reportedly having indulged in terrorist activities and are in close contact with some fugitive designated Khalistani terrorists through social media networks and other means of communication. The move comes almost two months after NIA Director General Dinkar Gupta raised candid and wide-ranging issues in meeting with the Director of the FBI, Christopher A Wray. He had raised activities of terrorist-organised criminal networks, ongoing investigations in the US in the attack on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, and investigations of cyber-terror and cyber-crimes of various kinds in the meeting. Gupta then highlighted the active nexus between the terrorist outfits and terrorist elements with members of organised criminal syndicates, which was spreading to the US as well. (ANI)
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