NEW DELHI: Indian police have carried out sweeping raids targeting a banned political party in disputed Kashmir, days after the deadliest blast in the Indian capital for more than a decade. There has been no confirmation that the searches this week are connected to Monday&#39;s explosion, which killed at least 12 people near the historic Red Fort in the capital&#39;s Old Delhi quarter. &lsquo;Anti-national forces&rsquo;The raids represent a renewed effort by police to tighten security after the explosion, which the government called &quot;a heinous terror incident&quot; and blamed on &quot;anti-national forces.&quot; Many of the raids have taken place since Wednesday, according to district police statements from across Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). Police in Awantipora, Bandipora, Ganderbal, Shopian, and Sopore districts issued statements about the raids, which they said targeted the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) party. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi&#39;s Hindu-nationalist government banned the Kashmir branch of Jamaat-e-Islami in 2019 as an &quot;unlawful association.&quot; &#39;Large-scale operations&#39;&nbsp;Officers carried out &quot;extensive raids at multiple locations&quot; to &quot;dismantle the terror ecosystem and its support structures&quot;, the police in Awantipora said in a statement. The department in Bandipora said they had seized &quot;incriminating material,&quot; while the Sopore police said it had carried out &quot;large-scale operations against JeI-linked networks&quot;, adding that more than 30 locations were searched. Officers also raided Al-Falah University in Faridabad, on the southern outskirts of the capital, while security forces on Friday demolished a house in Kashmir&#39;s Pulwama district. Police have not commented on the demolition, although law enforcement agencies have carried out such destruction against those accused of launching attacks in the past. India&#39;s anti-terrorism National Investigation Agency (NIA) is leading the probe into Monday&#39;s blast, and the government has vowed to bring the &quot;perpetrators, their collaborators, and their sponsors&quot; to justice. Little information&nbsp;But officials, so far, have given little further information on who that might be -- and whether it was a homegrown group or had links from abroad. Indian media have widely connected the Nov. 10 blast with a string of arrests just hours before, when they seized explosive materials and assault rifles. Police said those arrested were linked with Jaish-e-Mohammed and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind groups. Concerning those arrests, police said on Monday, shortly before the explosion, that their investigations had &quot;revealed a white-collar terror ecosystem, involving radicalised professionals and students in contact with foreign handlers, operating from Pakistan and other countries.&quot; The blast in Delhi was the most significant security incident since April 22, when 26 people were killed at the tourist site of Pahalgam in IIOJK, triggering clashes with Pakistan.

India

There has been no confirmation that the searches this week are connected to Monday's explosion, which killed at least 12 people near the historic Red Fort in the capital's Old Delhi quarter.

Articles tagged with "Occupied Kashmir"

Indian police carry out sweeping raids in Occupied Kashmir

Indian police carry out sweeping raids in Occupied Kashmir