Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday raided the residences and other properties of half a dozen separatist leaders across Kashmir Valley as part of its ongoing investigation into alleged terror funding in restive Jammu and Kashmir.
The leaders include Shia cleric and politician Agha Syed Hassan al-Mousvi in central Budgam and Ghulam Nabi Sumji in southern Bijbehara towns. Both are senior leaders of Syed Ali Shah Geelani-led Hurriyat Conference faction. The NIA sleuths also raided the houses of Shakeel Ahmed Bakshi, the patron of the Islamic Students’ League, and his brother Showkat Ahmed Bakshi who is a leader of pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front and Zamir Ahmed Sheikh, an aide of J&K Peoples’ Democratic Freedom Party chief Shabir Ahmed Shah.
The raids are being conducted also at various locations in Srinagar and frontier district of Kupwara. The J&K police and the CRPF have laid siege around these locations to facilitate smooth raids, the official sources said. The raids come a day after key separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik announced at a press conference that they will fly to Delhi on Saturday to court arrest before the NIA.
They said that the move was to counter the NIA’s “harassment”. Incidental-ly, home minister, Rajnath Singh, will on the same day begin his three-day visit of Jammu and Kashmir to hold a series of meetings to review the prevailing law and order situation. “The NIA has let loose a terror across Jammu and Kashmir. Even our family members and relatives are being harassed. Those associated with us based on principles of political ideology, our activists aides workers and others are being targeted too,” said the Mirwaiz. Aga Syed Hassan was also present at the preseer.
The NIA sleuths earlier during the day on Wednesday conducted raids at 27 locations in Srinagar, Delhi and Gurugram in a follow up to similar raids conducted and arrests made during the past couple of weeks. DG NIA Sharad Kumar had told reporters, “The raids have been carried out in several places in Delhi, Srinagar and Gurugram in connection with terror funding.
There are links of hawala operators, funders and cross LoC traders have emerged based on which raids are being conducted.” The NIA is reported to have seized Rs. 2.2 crore in cash during the raids and also detected ‘suspicious’ foreign transactions of about 100 crore during the investigation. But it is not clear if the amount was confiscated in the fresh raids or earlier.
The agency had during initial 23 raids conducted in June in Srinagar, Delhi and Haryana claimed seizing about Rs 2 crore cash, incriminating documents, letter-heads of some militant outfits, laptops and mobile phones. A large portion of that amount was seized from a Srinagar-based LPG dealer who is related to one of the separatist leaders arrested by the NIA. The officials have said that the seizures have caused dent to terror funding and sponsoring stone-pelting in the Valley which is evident from the fact that less number of stone-pelting incidents have taken place during the past couple of months and there has been a turnaround also in the overall ground situation.
The NIA had on Tuesday arrested two alleged ‘ringleaders’ of stone-pelters including a freelance press photographer Kamran Yusuf from south of the Valley.
The duo which has been accused also of mobilising support against security personnel through the social media, was on Wednesday sent to 10-day NIA custody for interrogation by a Delhi court.
