SRINAGAR: The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the militancy and separatist funding in Jammu and Kashmir, has summoned the chairman of Valley’s trade body and scholar of Kashmir University for questioning at its New Delhi headquarters on Monday.
The agency has also issued fresh summons to son of hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani.
Mohammad Yasin Khan, who is chairman of Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA) chairman and president Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation and research scholar Aala Fazili, who is pursuing PhD in Pharmacy department at Kashmir University, have been summoned for questioning on September 25 (Monday) by NIA at its headquarters in New Delhi.
Both Khan and Fazili have received the NIA summons and would be visiting the national capital on Monday to appear before the NIA sleuths for questioning.
“I don’t know why I have been called for questioning. The NIA summon reads that I am required by the investigation officer to answer certain questions in connection with RC-10/2017/NIA/ DLI. I have never been summoned in any case by local police,” said Fazili, a resident of central Kashmir’s Budgam district.
He said he has applied for leave and would appear before NIA sleuths at its headquarters in national capital on Monday.
The NIA has also summoned Geelani’s son Naseem Geelani for further questioning on Monday.
Naseem, who teaches at Agriculture University Kashmir, has been summoned for the third time for questioning at NIA headquarters.
The NIA is probing the militancy and separatist funding in Jammu and Kashmir and has so far arrested seven separatists including son-in-law of Geelani, leading Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali, two youth of south Kashmir including a photo-journalist and a Sikh lawyer of Jammu.
Reacting to summoning of its chairman by the NIA, the Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation, Kashmir Economic Alliance and transporters have called for Kashmir bandh on September 25 to protest the summoning of trade leader by investigating agency.
The separatists have termed NIA raids and arrests as “political vendetta”.
The NIA had registered a case on May 30 against separatist leaders for acting in connivance with militants of Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba and other groups and woman separatist group Dukhtaran-e-Millat for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means including hawala for funding separatist and militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
The NIA raids and arrests of separatist leaders took place after three separatists Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan and Gazi Javed Baba had in an expose by India Today TV purportedly acknowledged of receiving money from Pakistan government, Hafiz Saeed and militant groups for fomenting unrest in Valley and creating chaos by burning schools, government institutions, panchayat ghars and police stations.