In a pre-dawn swoop, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided 26 locations in Kashmir, Haryana and the national capital on Sunday. The raids were in connection with a case of alleged funding received by separatist groups for carrying out subversive activities in the Valley.
After registering an FIR earlier this week, various NIA teams which had been camping in the Valley for few days, moved under heavy escort from their camp office located at Humhama, on the outskirts of the Srinagar.
Over Rs 2.5 Crore Seized
NIA officials conducted raids in 14 places in Srinagar, including the houses of three separatist leaders – Tehreek-e-Hurriyat leader Ghazi Javed Baba, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Farooq Ahmed Dar aka Bitta Karate, and suspended Hurriyat leader Nayeem Khan, and their aides.
The NIA seized over Rs 2.5 crore in the raids in Kashmir, Haryana and Delhi. The agency also recovered property related documents, letterheads of banned terrorist organisations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), pen drives, laptops, gold jewellery and other incriminating documents from the premises of the accused.
This is for the first time since militancy in early 1990s that a central probe agency has carried out raids in connection with terror funding to separatists in the Valley.
Earlier in 2002, the Income Tax department had carried out searches against separatist leaders, including Geelani. They had seized cash and other documents at the time, but no criminal case had been registered then.
Raids Carried Out After a TV Sting Operation
The raids were carried out following the questioning of three separatist leaders – Nayeem Khan, who was seen on television during a sting operation purportedly confessing to receiving money from Pakistan-based terror groups, Farooq Ahmed Dar alias 'Bitta Karate' and Gazi Javed Baba of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, in the national capital last month.
The separatists were allegedly receiving funds from the chief of Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), Hafiz Saeed, to carry out subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley, including pelting stones at security forces, damaging public property and burning schools and other government establishments.
While no separatist leader from the Valley has been named in the FIR registered by the NIA, organisations like the Hurriyat Conference (factions led by Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq), Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Milat and Lashkar-e-Taiba besides Pakistan-based chief of Jamaat-ul Dawah Hafeez Saeed have been mentioned.
The NIA, which had earlier registered a preliminary enquiry, also raided around eight hawala dealers and traders in the national, besides two in Sonepat in Haryana.
ED Issues Fresh Summons to Kashmiri Separatist Leader Shabir Shah
The Enforcement Directorate has issued fresh summons to Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah in connection with an over a decade-old case of money-laundering registered against him for alleged terror financing.
Officials said the agency has asked Shah to depose before the investigating officer (IO) of the case here on 6 June.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had issued similar summons to Shah on 25 May but he had failed to keep the date.
The central probe agency has issued several summons to Shah over the last few years in pursuance of the August 2005 case wherein the Delhi Police's Special Cell had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani (35), an alleged hawala dealer, who had claimed that he had passed on Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.
Shah has never kept the dates with ED.
He has in the past said that the ED case against him was "politically motivated".
The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Shah and Wani.
(With inputs from PTI and IANS)
(Source: Hindustan Times)
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