The National Investigation Agency (NIA) continued raids in Kashmir Valley during the course of investigation into alleged funding to terror and subversive activities in Jammu & Kashmir. On Wednesday, the NIA raided 11 locations including the residence of six businessmen. The separatist Hurriyat Conference leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik described the NIA raids as vindictive policy and decided to court arrest before the NIA headquarters in Delhi.
The NIA began tracking down separatists and their sympathisers in alleged terror funding case since May 30 when an FIR was registered following a sting operation by a New Delhi based television channel. The channel claimed that several separatist leaders and activists conceded that they receive funding from Pakistan to perpetuate subversive activities, including stone-pelting on security forces, in Kashmir.
An NIA spokesman said that on Wednesday searches were conducted at 27 locations in Delhi and Srinagar by the NIA teams. The places searched include houses and business establishments of traders and hawala operators who are suspected of channelising funds to fuel secessionist and anti-India activities. “During the searches, cash amounting to approximately Rs 2.20 crore has been recovered besides incriminating documents pertaining to financial transactions,” the spokesman said. The recoveries include digital devices in large number including laptops, mobile phones and hard discs during the search. The diaries pertaining to contacts of hawala operators and traders, ledger books containing accounts of cross border lOC trade of various trading companies have been recovered. Some details of bank accounts of Jammu and Kashmir were also recovered. Travel documents of some entities showing their visits to the UAE have also been recovered. Searches are still continuing and the suspects are being questioned about the incriminating recoveries made from them.
Meanwhile, the two youth arrested by NIA on Tuesday, including a photo-journalist, were sent to 10-day NIA custody for questioning.
District Judge Poonam A Bamba allowed the NIA to quiz Javed Ahmed Bhat from Kulgam and Kamran Yusuf from Pulwama till September 16 after the probe agency said they were required to be confronted with the other accused in the case.
The two youth are accused of stone-pelting incidents and mobilising protesters for stone pelting at security personnel during counter-insurgency operations.
Meanwhile, separatist leadership including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik said that they will court arrest at NIA headquarters in New Delhi on September 9.
The NIA has already arrested seven separatist leaders and they have been put in Tihar Jail. The leaders said Government of India is following a policy of coercion, defamation and intimidation in Kashmir as it does not want to address the actual issue.
The three leaders said that India wants to change the entire narrative and diversionary tactics and propaganda is being used it’s a multi-pronged approach to defame and malign the leadership, through personal attack on their integrity by spreading viscous lies about them and distorting and manipulating facts in order to create disillusionment among the masses regarding them and hence demoralise the Kashmiri masses from their just political struggle recognised by the world.
The leaders said that they will go to Delhi and court arrest at the NIA headquarters. Speaking to media persons at Jamia Masjid, Yasin Malik said the NIA was behaving like Gabbar Singh of Bollywood film Sholay and used by India to instill fear in the State.
“NIA is not an investigating agency. It is Gabbar Singh of India used to harass and threaten people in Kashmir, students, businessmen and pro-freedom leaders to keep them away from pro-movement activities,” Malik said.