Terror funding: Scholar, trade body chief under lens

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has summoned a Ph.D. student of Kashmir University, two leaders of Hurriyat and chief of a traders’ organisation for questioning in connection with a case of terror funding.

Aala Fazil, a Ph.D. student from Kashmir University, Yaseen Khan, who heads Kashmir Traders’ and Marketing Federation, and Abdul Hameed Magrey and Wali Mohammed of Geelani faction in Hurriyat have been asked to appear for questioning on Monday.

The Kashmir traders’ organisation has called for a strike on Monday to protest the summons. NIA sources said it is also likely to summon Kashmir Bar Association president Mian Qayoom again as some issues in his statement are yet to be verified.

Officials claimed that those summoned would be questioned in connection with incidents of stone-pelting in the Valley.

The National Investigation Agency had lodged an FIR case on May 30 in connection with a case of terror funding which named Hafiz Saeed, some Hurriyat leaders and terror organisations like Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Hizbul Mujahideen.

The FIR also names organisations such as the two factions of the Hurriyat, one led by Geelani and the other by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the Hizbul Mujahideen and the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, an all-women outfit of separatists. The case was registered for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including hawala, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and for causing disruption in the Valley by pelting the security forces with stones, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India, the probe agency said in the FIR.

So far, the NIA has managed to get confessional statements from two of the accused in the case. These statements were recorded before a judicial magistrate and can thus now be used as evidence. The investigating agency has arrested 10 people in connection with the case which includes Altaf Ahmed Shah, son-in-law of Syed Ali Shah Geelani along with noted businessman Zahorr Watali.

Others arrested include Geelani’s close aides Ayaz Akbar, who is also the spokesperson of the hardline separatist organisation Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, Peer Saifullah, Shahid-ul-Islam, spokesperson of the moderate Hurriyat Conference, Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Nayeem Khan, Farooq Ahmed Dar alias ‘Bitta Karate’, photo-journalist Kamran Yusuf and Javed Ahmed Bhat.