NIA grills Hurriyat leaders in Srinagar

Investigation agency quizzes separatists to get details of funding by LeT, ISI

To probe the alleged terror funding to Kashmiri separatists by Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday questioned several Hurriyat leaders in Srinagar.

Sources told DH that the NIA team, headed by a DIG-level officer, questioned some Hurriyat leaders, including Nayeem Khan, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate and Gazi Javed Baba to get the details of the funds provided by LeT and ISI for organising and sustaining unrest in Kashmir.

 “The NIA is likely to question Hurriyat hawk Geelani and some others in the coming days in connection with the alleged terror funding,” they revealed.

Earlier on Friday, the NIA had registered a preliminary enquiry (PE) against Geelani, Khan, Karate and Baba. “The PE reveals that money is transferred from Pakistan to agents in Old Delhi’s Ballimaran and Chandni Chowk areas before it is taken to the valley,” sources said. The fresh probe comes in the backdrop of Hurriyat leaders spilling the beans in a TV sting operation about Hafiz-Hurriyat nexus. The NIA, sources said, is investigating 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 also expected to scrutinize phone and bank details of several other people suspected to be involved in routing the funds to separatists and militants,” sources said

The exhaustive probe will start only after the team gets some clue of funding from across the border as revealed by three Hurriyat leaders in a sting operation conducted by a TV news channel, sources added.

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. Meanwhile, Geelani on Saturday suspended Nayeem Khan from his faction of Hurriyat. The suspension will come into force with immediate effect in Srinagar and Hurriyat chapter of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, Geelani said in a statement.

While reacting to the sting operation by the news channel, Nayeem Khan said, “Sting operation conducted by a Delhi-based TV channel is fake and doctored. I challenge the TV channel to run my full video instead of bits and pieces.”

Stone-pelters nabbed

Cracking down on trouble mongers, the police on Saturday arrested two “chronic” stone-pelters who were reportedly involved in creating disturbances in central Kashmir’s Budgam district, PTI reports from Srinagar. The arrested youth included a college student, the police said, adding a mask and a “green and white flag”, an apparent refence to the Pakistani flag, were recovered from them.