NIA conducts searches at 12 places in J&K

NEW DELHI : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday conducted fresh searches at 12 locations in Jammu and Kashmir as part of its probe into whether the funding of separatists from Pakistani terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was being used to fuel violence in the valley.

The searches, which the central agency termed as follow-up action, were carried out in Srinagar, Baramulla, and Handwara.

Those raided on Wednesday included a Srinagar-based advocate Mohammed Shafi Reshi and three relatives of prominent businessman Zahoor Watali, whose premises were searched in the first round of raids.

The agency has so far arrested seven people — Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s son-inlaw Altaf Ahmed Shah, Ayaz Akbar Khanday, Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Peer Saifullah (all from Geelani’s faction of Hurriyat), Shahid-ul-Islam (of faction led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq), Nayeem Khan of the Jammu Kashmir National Front and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karatay of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (R). The agency now plans to summon Geelani, Malik, Shabir Shah, and Farooq.

Geelani’s two sons — Nayeem and Naseem — have already been questioned by the NIA in the case.

“We suspect financial links between the separatists and those raided on Wednesday,” said Alok Mittal, inspector general of NIA.

Before the arrests, the anti-terrorism investigating agency conducted the first round of searches across Kashmir, Delhi, and Haryana looking for evidence of separatist leaders and businessmen receiving funds from Hafiz Saeed, who heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawa group, and other Pakistan-based militant outfits.

THE SEARCHES, WHICH THE CENTRAL AGENCY TERMED AS FOLLOWUP ACTION, WERE CARRIED OUT IN SRINAGAR, BARAMULLA, AND HANDWARA.