Hizbul chief’s sons received terror funds from abroad, NIA probe reveals

Two sons of Pakistan-based Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, who were recently terminated from the services by the Jammu and Kashmir government, were receiving funds from Saudi Arabia and UK for funding terror activities in the union territory, investigations have revealed.

Shakeel Yousuf Shah, who was working as a lab assistant at tertiary-care SKIMS hospital in Srinagar and Shahid Yousuf Shah, extension agriculture officer in Sher-i-Kashmir University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology (SKUAST), both sons of Mohammad Yousuf Shah aka Salahuddin, were arrested in 2017 and 2020 respectively by National Investigation Agency (NIA) in terror funding cases.

Sources said the NIA has tracked terror funding trails and found both of them involved in raising, receiving, collecting, and transferring funds through hawala transactions for terror activities of Hizbul Mujahideen.

Also read: J&K terror funding: Court orders framing of charges against four Hizbul Mujahideen members

“They had met hawala operators in Saudi Arabia and London for funding terror activities in India over the years. They were in direct contact with Nazir Ahmed Qureshi, who originally hails from Baramulla district of north Kashmir but was running a hawala syndicate from Saudi Arabia and London to finance terror activities in India,” sources quoting NIA investigations, revealed.

Salahuddin also heads the United Jihad Council, a conglomerate of 13 militant outfits, operating from Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (POK). He was named as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Department Of State and is on the most wanted terrorist list of the NIA.

Official sources said that over the years “favourable regimes” in J&K buried all evidence on file and facts were suppressed to shield Salahuddin’s sons.

“Shahid had also received funds from Aijaz Ahmad Bhat alias Aijaz Maqbool Bhat, a close aide of Salahuddin. Aijaz used various addresses from Saudi Arabia to transfer these funds to Shahid through Western Union Money Transfer,” they said and added the siblings were using multiple identities to receive funds from multiple addresses in Saudi Arabia.

Investigations have revealed that Shakeel, a backdoor appointee, was found to have facilitated terror funding on at least six occasions while Shahid, again backdoor appointee in the Agriculture department, was found to have been involved in terror funding on nine occasions.