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Mobile call records led NIA to separatists

Digital, electronic proof helped nail Hurriyat link
Last Updated 25 July 2017, 19:24 IST

A close scrutiny of around 50 Kashmiri youths and their telephone records had led to the arrest of seven second-rung Hurriyat leaders on charges of funding violent protests.

According to sources, the National Investigation Agency has been monitoring the mobile phone records of these youths for the past two months and it came to light that they were monetarily fed by local leaders linked to the Hurriyat.

The middle-level Hurriyat leaders operated through their local counterparts to reach out to the youths, who were given funds to organise stone-pelting protests after suspected Hizbul Mujahideen miltant Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter in July last year.

Sources claimed the NIA has collected digital and electronic evidence to link the Hurriyat leaders to the stone pelters.

They said over the past 11 months, the youths were in touch with Hurriyat leaders, particularly those belonging to the Syed Ali Shah Geelani faction. They said the interactions between stone pelters and separatist leaders were on multiple levels and it showed that it was done in an organised manner.

The investigators are also analysing Facebook posts of some prominent protesters and have collected “solid evidence” against a dozen others.

Seven people, including Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah, were on Monday arrested by the NIA in connection with its probe into the funding of terror and subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley. The houses of those arrested had been raided by NIA sleuths last month.

The NIA had on May 30 registered a case against separatist and secessionist leaders, including members of the Hurriyat Conference, who have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed groups Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, LeT and other outfits and gangs.

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(Published 25 July 2017, 19:24 IST)

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