NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday filed a chargesheet against 12 people including LeT chief Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen head and chairman of United Jehad Council Syed Salahuddin, some Hurriyat leaders and two persons involved in throwing stones, among others, for “conspiring to wage war against the government” and fomenting trouble in the Kashmir Valley.
The NIA filed the chargesheet before a designated NIA court here and sought permission to continue its probe related to terror funding in J&K.
The 12,794-page chargesheet was filed under sections of Indian Penal Code relating to criminal conspiracy, sedition and waging war against the nation among others, besides relevant provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
The chargesheet has alleged that Saeed and Salahuddin were aware of the financial transactions with the separatist leaders who received funds from UAE-based shell companies. The chargesheet has also referred to oral evidence suggesting some of the accused like
Nayeem Ahmad Khan were in touch with some officials of the Pakistani High Commission here.
Besides Saeed and Salahuddin, some of the others charge-sheeted include Aftab Ahmad Shah a resident of Srinagar and media advisor and strategist of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) (Mirwaiz Umar Farooq faction), Altaf Ahmad Shah of Srinagar who is PRO at Tehreek-e-Hurriyat as well as secretary and strategist APHC (Geelani faction) and Nayeem Ahmad Khan, resident of Baramulla and chairman, National Front, a secessionist outfit of J&K and also a constituent of APHC.
“The scrutiny and analysis of the documents and digital devices established that the accused i.e. the Hurriyat leaders, the terrorists and the stone-pelters are carrying out terrorist attacks and orchestrating violence, stone-pelting and other subversive and secessionist activities in Jammu & Kashmir as a part of their well-planned criminal conspiracy hatched with the active support, connivance and funding from terrorist organisations based in Pakistan and its agencies to achieve their objective of secession of the State of Jammu & Kashmir by waging war against the Government of India,” the NIA said in a statement.
“The investigation has conclusively established that for carrying out all these terrorist and subversive activities, the gang of the accused persons is receiving funds from Pakistani agencies through hawala conduits such as Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali and others and are also raising funds by generating illegal profits from LoC barter trade by doing under-invoicing and cash-dealings,” according to the chargesheet.