NIA attaches properties of sons of Hizbul chief Salahuddin in J&K

Continuing its crackdown on terror funding, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday attached two properties of the sons of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir based Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin in Kashmir.

The immovable properties of Shahid Yusuf and Syed Ahmed Shakeel, located in Soibugh, Budgam and Ram Bagh Srinagar respectively have been attached under section 33(1) of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, a spokesperson of the NIA said.

Both Shahid and Shakeel are lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail since their arrest in October 2017 and August 2018 respectively. “They were charge-sheeted on April 20, 2018 and November 20, 2018 respectively. The duo had been receiving funds from abroad from the associates of their father and overground workers of the Hizbul,” he said.

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Salahuddin had fled to Pakistan in 1993 and was designated as a terrorist by the Narendra Modi government in October 2020. He is currently operating from Pakistan. He is also the chief of United Jihad Council (UJC), a conglomerate of around 13 Pakistan-based terror outfits.

Besides instigating and operationalising terror activities in India, primarily in J&K, Salahuddin has been raising funds and routing finances to India through trade routes, hawala and international funding channels to further terror activities of his organization, the NIA statement said.

“The NIA launched investigations in November 2011 into the criminal conspiracy to raise, collect and provide funds to commit terrorist acts and distribute funds among the terror groups and their sympathizers in Jammu and Kashmir for the purpose of committing terrorist acts,” it said.

The Special Cell of Delhi Police had initially registered a case in January 2011 and the case was subsequently taken over by NIA. Chargesheets as well as supplementary chargesheets were filed against eight accused in the case, including in 2011 and 2018.

NIA has been cracking down on terror funding machinery in a bid to dismantle the terrorist financing ecosystem operating in Jammu and Kashmir with the help of individuals based in Pakistan and other countries, the probe agency said.

“On Monday itself, the agency had also seized six shops in Awantipora in a case relating to a 2018 attack on CRPF Group Centre at Lethpora. Some land, including a house, belonging to the father of one of the accused was also attached in the same case in September 2020,” the statement said.