The National Investigation Agency on Wednesday carried out searches at 27 places in various parts of Kashmir  and Delhi and claimed to have seized nearly Rs 2.20 crore in cash besides  incriminating  documents  pertaining  to  financial transactions.

“The   places   searched   include   houses   and   business establishments  of  those  (traders/hawala  operators  etc.)  who  are  suspected  of  channelising  funds  to fuel  secessionist  and  anti-India  activities,” an NIA spokesman  said in a statement.

The spokesman said various digital devices including laptops, mobile phones and hard drives have also been seized during the searches. Diaries pertaining to contacts of hawala operators/traders, ledger books containing accounts of cross-border LOC trade of various trading companies have been recovered. Some details of bank accounts of Jammu and Kashmir were also recovered, the spokesman said.

Travel documents of some entities indicating their visits to the UAE have also been recovered, he said, adding that some of the suspects were being questioned about the recoveries made from them. The raids come a day after the NIA arrested two persons, including a freelance photo-journalist, who allegedly indulged in stone-pelting and mobilising support against the security personnel through social media.

These raids and arrests by the NIA is part of its investigation in a case registered on May 30 in which the leader of the Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa and banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hafiz Saeed, was named as an accused. The NIA has arrested seven persons in the case of alleged funding of militancy and subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley to fuel unrest there.

The case was registered for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including hawala channels, for funding such activities. It also included causing disruption in the Valley by stone-pelting, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.