NIA attaches properties of Hizb chief Syed Salahuddin’s sons
Notice boards announcing the attachments were installed at Srinagar & Budgam properties
SRINAGAR: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday attached properties of two sons of Syed Mohammed Yusuf Shah, alias Syed Salahuddin, the chief of militant conglomerate United Jihad Council (UJC), under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in Kashmir.
Salahuddin operates from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and commands the 13 militant-outfit conglomerate UJC, which also includes Hizbul Mujahideen of which he is the self-claimed supreme commander. His sons, Shahid Yusuf and Syed Ahmed Shakeel, based in Kashmir, are in Delhi’s Tihar jail since their arrest in October 2017 and August 2018 respectively for allegedly receiving funds from Hizbul Mujahideen.
“The immovable properties of Shahid Yusuf and Syed Ahmed Shakeel located in Budgam and Srinagar respectively have been attached under Section 33(1) of the UAPA,” the NIA said in a statement. While Shahid’s two kanals of land was attached in Soibugh Budgam, the home village of Salahuddin, Shakeel’s house was attached in Nursing Garh, Rambagh in Srinagar by the orders of a special NIA court.
Syed Salahhudin, who had fled to Pakistan in 1993, was designated as an individual terrorist by India in October 2020. “He continues to operate from Pakistan, from where he is guiding and instructing Hizbul Mujahideen cadre as well as activists of the UJC, also known as Muttahida Jihad Council (MJC), which is a conglomerate of around 13 Pakistan-based Kashmir centric terror outfits,” it said.
The agency said besides instigating and operationalising militant activities in India, primarily in Kashmir Valley, Syed Salahuddin has been raising funds and routing finances to India through trade routes, Hawala channels, and international money transfer channels for furthering the terrorist activities.
“The NIA launched investigations in November 2011 into the criminal conspiracy to raise, collect, provide funds to commit terrorist acts and distribute funds among the terror groups and their sympathisers in Jammu and Kashmir for the purpose of committing terrorist acts,” it said.
The special cell of the Delhi police had initially registered a case in January 2011 and the case was subsequently taken over by the NIA.
“Chargesheets as well as supplementary chargesheets were filed against eight accused in the case, including in 2011 and 2018,” the agency said.
It stated that the NIA has been cracking down on terror funding machinery in a bid to dismantle the terrorist financing ecosystem operating in Jammu and Kashmir with the help of individuals based in Pakistan and other countries.
Besides, the NIA also seized six shops in Awantipora in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district in a case relating to a 2018 attack on CRPF group centre at Lethpora, J&K.
“Some land, including a house, belonging to the father of one of the accused was also attached in the same case in September 2020. In 2021, the NIA had attached residential properties belonging to the kin of two accused in the case of the terrorist attack on CRPF Convoy at Lethpora, Pulwama,” it said.