The National Investigation Agency today arrested seven Kashmiri separatist leaders in connection receiving funds for terror and subversive activities in Kashmir
The seven second rung separatist leaders are Naeem Khan leader of National Front, Bitta Karate leader of a faction of JKLF, Ayaz Akbar, spokesman, Hurriyat Conference led by Ali Shah Geelani, Peet Saifullah, Meraj Kalwal, member of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, Saheed Ul Islam, spokesman and aide of Miriwaiz Umar Farooq who heads the Awami Action Committeee and a faction of Hurriyat Conference, and Altaf Ahmad Shah alias Altaf Fantosh, Geelani's son-in-law member of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat and Hurriyat Conferece , Geelani faction.
Karate rest was arrested in New Delhi while others were arrested in Srinagar and will now be brought to New Delhi for further investigations.
The separatist leaders were arrested after the NIA separatists couldn't respond to the summons of issued against them by the NIA as they were detained under preventive custody .
The summons were send to Ayaz Akbar, Kalwal, Fantosh and Saifulla where in the NIA has asked them to present themselves for questioning on July 24 at their Jammu and Kashmir branch.
The arrested separated leader had also not responded the summons issued by the NIA on July 14 and July 17 in which they were asked to come to New Delhi
The separatists were then detained under under preventive detention Kashmir police.
The NIA is sure that the leaders received funding through hawala channels to fund and sustain the unrest in Kashmir triggered by the killing of popular Hizbul Mujhaideen commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani and two of his associates in Kokernag, south Kashmir on July 8, 2016.
the NIA had raided the residences of the separatist leader along with some prominent businessmen in connection to evidence to establish the terror funding trail. The agency seized some 2 crore rupees and incriminating material of militant outfits like Hizbul and Lashkar-e-Toiba.
The NIA had seized some documents and money from the residences of some business who it suspected were acting as conduits for the separatists for terror funding.
The NIA launched investigations after a news channel claimed it had caught Khan and Karatte on tape admitting to accepting money to fuel unrest in Kashmir that included burning down of schools. Khan later said he was being trapped and the tapes were doctored. The NIA started questioning Khan, Karatte and Gazi Javed Baba.
They were intially questioned in Srinagar but were later summoned to Delhi.
An NIA statement about the arrest of seven Kashmiri separatists said: '' The NIA today arrested 07 persons in connection with the NIA Case No. RC-10/2017/NIA/DLI (J&K Terror Funding Case) under sections 120B, 121, 121A of IPC and sections 13, 16, 17, 18, 20, 38, 39, 40 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.''
The statement said the arrested persons will be produced before a special judge, NIA, Patiala House, New Delhi, on Tuesday.
It said the NIA had registered an instant case against the separatist and secessionist leaders, including the members/cadres of the Hurriyat Conference, who have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed terrorist organizations Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM),Dukhtarane Millat, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and other terrorist organisations/associations and gangs for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including hawala, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and for causing disruption in Kashmir Valley by way of pelting stones on the security forces, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.
The statement said in pursuance of this FIR, the NIA had conducted widespread searches on the suspected persons in Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Haryana and incriminating documents, electronic devices, cash and other valuables worth crores were unearthed during those searches.
