Two separatist leaders to appear before NIA in Delhi
Duo has been asked to bring certain bank and property papers
SRINAGAR: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has summoned two Kashmiri separatist leaders to its headquarters in Delhi on Monday in connection with a case related to the funding of terror and subversive activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
Farooq Ahmad Dar alias ‘Bitta Karate’ and Javed Ahmed Baba alias ‘Gazi’ of Tehreek-eHurriyat have been asked to bring certain bank and property documents, besides other papers by the investigating agency. The NIA team had for four consecutive days earlier this month.
The questioning comes after the central probe agency, formed in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, named Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Taiba chief Hafeez Saeed, hardline Kashmiri separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Jammu and National Front chairman Nayeem Khan in a Preliminary Enquiry (PE).
Khan has since been suspended from the Geelani-led Hurriyat Conference.
The case is based on a sting operation, aired on a news channel, in which Khan was purportedly shown confessing to receiving money from Pakistan-based terror groups through hawala channels.
Dar alias ‘Bitta Karate’ and Baba alias ‘Gazi’, who are also named in the PE, will be again questioned for their alleged involvement in raising, collecting and transferring funds through hawala and other channels for terror funding in Kashmir and fuelling unrest and promoting stone-pelting.
The NIA has also collected details of 13 accused chargesheeted so far in the Valley in recent cases related to causing damage to schools and public property as part of a “larger conspiracy to perpetuate chaos” in Kashmir.
During their stay in Srinagar, the NIA team, headed by its additional director general, also gathered evidence collected by the Jammu and Kashmir Police about the burning of schools. Khan had allegedly claimed in the sting operation that the educational institutions had been targeted under plans hatched in Pakistan.
The schools were damaged last year after banned Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with security forces on July 8.
The NIA’s PE alleged that the separatists were receiving funds from the LeT chief to carry out subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley, including pelting security forces with stones, damaging public property and burning schools and other government establishments.
NIA HAS COLLECTED DETAILS OF 13 ACCUSED CHARGESHEETED IN THE VALLEY IN RECENT CASES RELATED TO CAUSING DAMAGE TO PUBLIC PROPERTY