The Asian Age

LeT chief may be funding J&K stir: NIA

Cops may detain organisers of the cricket tournament

- RAJNISH SHARMA

Initial investigat­ions by intelligen­ce agencies and the National Investigat­ion Agency have revealed that Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief and found of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Hafiz Saeed, may have directly mastermind­ed pumping funds through hawala channels into the Kashmir Valley to foment trouble after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani last July.

The NIA has already lodged a case in connection with hawala funding to separatist leaders in the Valley, and with assistance from Central intelligen­ce agencies, launched a fullscale probe into the entire network.

The Jammu and Kashmir police may detain for questionin­g the organisers of a cricket tournament during which the ‘national’ anthem of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir was played in southern Pulwama district on Sunday.

The video of the event has gone viral on social media and the officials here said that the district police has already taken up investigat­ions after registerin­g a case at the local police station.

“With the help of the video clippings, we are trying to identify the people who were part of the cricket match ahead of which the PoK anthem was played and pro-freedom and anti-national slogans were chanted,” said a police officer.

The match was played on Sunday and the amateur video which was later placed on social media and has since gone viral was filmed moments before the clash between Shining Star Pampore and Pulwama Tigers in the final match of the tourney played in the Pulwama town stadium.

In April this year, a video had surfaced showing a group of local cricketers wearing Pakistan green lining up for the Pakistani national anthem ahead of a cricket match played in the Valley’s Ganderbal district. In that video, the cricketers in the Pakistan kit could be seen standing while the neighbouri­ng country’s national anthem was being played ahead of this match. The opposing team, dressed in the traditiona­l white cricketing outfit, were representi­ng India in the match, and had also stood in respect while the Indian national anthem was being played. However, the players in the Pakistani kit were later detained for questionin­g by the police and released after their meeting legal requiremen­t.

Reports from Pulwama which with other districts of South KashmirSho­pian, Kulgam and Anantnag has been worst hit in post-Burhan Wani killing in July 2016 and where the number of local youth joining the militant ranks is increasing by the day, posters with photograph­s of slain militants were also put up around the playground while post match awards were named after some of the slain militants.

 ?? — AP ?? Policemen detain a Kashmiri student during a protest in Srinagar on Monday. The students have been protesting after troops raided a college in the southern town of Pulwama in April.
— AP Policemen detain a Kashmiri student during a protest in Srinagar on Monday. The students have been protesting after troops raided a college in the southern town of Pulwama in April.

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