Sources told TOI that in three cases, preliminary evidence strongly indicated that the SIMs were procured to help the terrorists in maintaining communication with their handlers across the border in Pakistan and with other terrorist modules within J&K.
A majority of the raids conducted on Saturday were at premises of Point of Sale (POS) vendors who sold these cards in violation of Department of Telecom (DoT) regulations and in a manner that amounts to forgery and cheating, said an officer.
One of the POS vendor whose premises were raided — M/S Airtel Micro World at Chawalgam, Kulgam — had issued a SIM card in a fictitious name, Gowhar Ahmad Hajam, and given it to a person in Qaimoh in Kulgam who turned out to be an OGW of terror outfit Ansar-u- Gazwatul Hind.
In yet another case, a POS vendor of Mir Mohalla Monghall of Anantnag issued a SIM card to a subscriber who passed it on to an OGW of terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen. The houses all the three involved — the vendor, subscriber and OGW — were searched in Saturday for additional evidence.
In a third instance, four POS vendors — each belonging to Konibal in Pampore; Walina, Ichgam in Budgam; Barzullah in Srinagar and Lasjan — issued SIMs in the name of real persons by stealing their identity and misusing their identity documents.
