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NIA probe to track terror funding to Kashmiri separatists

Last Updated 19 May 2017, 09:46 IST
The National Investigation Agency has launched a fresh probe to track the funding to separatist leaders in Kashmir by 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

Sources told Deccan Herald that a team of NIA has landed in Srinagar and have registered a preliminary enquiry into the alleged funding to Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Geelani and his associates by Saeed and other Pakistan based militants. “After completing the preliminary investigations, the NIA is set to question Geelani, Naeem Khan, Gazi Javed Baba and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate in the coming days,” they revealed.

The fresh probe comes in the backdrop of a senior Hurriyat leader spilling the beans in a TV sting operation about Hafiz-Hurriyat nexus. The NIA, sources said, will investigate how the money sent from Pakistan was distributed in the Valley to fuel the unrest. “Some more people are expected to be involved in the nexus. The NIA is scrutinizing phone and bank details of several other people suspected to be involved in routing the funds to separatists and militants,” they added.

Sources in the anti-terror probe agency said discreet inquiries in the   past have   shown that some people who received terror funds in their accounts had no connection whatsoever with the depositors and the amounts were withdrawn immediately after being transferred.

In August last year the NIA had summoned Nayeem Geelani elder son of octogenarian Geelani for appearance at its Srinagar sub-office to probe flow of funds into his bank account from overseas which in turn was allegedly being used for anti-national activities in the Valley. The name of Geelani’s son had emerged during the preliminary investigations by the premier probe agency then.

Earlier this year, the NIA had also questioned several cross LoC traders in Kashmir who were suspected to have been used by Pakistan to send money to Hizbul Mujahideen and Hurriyat leaders. Between 2008 when the barter trade started, till 2016, according to NIA estimates, Pakistan has supplied about 34,000 trucks via Uri route worth Rs 2,000 crore while India has sent 22,000 trucks worth Rs 1,900 crore. This gap of Rs 100 core, the NIA suspects, was used to fund terror activities in the Valley.

However, sources, said, till now the NIA has not been able to establish any case against any suspected trader.
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(Published 19 May 2017, 08:10 IST)

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