NIA: Enough proof against Mirwaiz in terror funding case

NEW DELHI: Letterheads of Lashkar-e-taiba, Jammat-ud-dawa, Hizbul Mujahideen and other terrorist organisations are among various “significant evidences” that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) says are enough to book top separatist leaders, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq i n i t s ongoing probe i n the J&k terror funding case.

The NIA investigators have scrutinized these letterheads which were recovered in a raid the agency conducted at seven locations in Srinagar last month.

An NIA officer, privy to the investigation, told IANS that Farooq, the Chairman Awami Action Committee, and more than six top separatist leaders “may soon face the heat” in the terror funding case the agency registered in May 2017.

The officer, however, did not clarify whether an FIR will be registered against these separat i st l eaders or t hey will be arrested. He only confirmed that “something big would happen soon before June”.

Asked about the names of those separatist leaders, the officer, on condition of anonymity, said Yasin Malik, Chairman of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, and Naseem Geelani, son of Sayeed Ali Shah Geelani, are on the NIA list. The agency on March 9 issued summons to them to appear before its headquarters.

Geelani has been questioned on more than three occasions in the case. Other separatist leaders on NIA radar are Mohammad Ashraf Khan, Chairman Tehreek-e-hurriyat, Masarat Alam, General Secretary, All Party Hurriyat Conference, and Zaffar Akbar Bhat, Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Salvation Movement.