SRI NAGAR: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) will question former JK MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid for his links with self-styled Hizbul Mujahideen commander Naveed Mushtaq alias Naveed ‘Babu’, arrested along with suspended Jammu and Kashmir Police DSP Davinder Singh, officials said here on Monday.
Sources said Naveed, who was Hizbul deputy chief and second in command after Riyaz Naikoo, told interrogators that he was in touch with former independent MLA Rashid.
“He (Naveed) said Hizbul Mujahideen wanted to set up a base in north Kashmir and they were in touch with Rashid so that he could facilitate it,” sources said.
Rashid, a three-time MLA from J&K from Langate constituency in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, is under detention at the Tihar Jail in Delhi after his arrest by the NIA on August 9 in connection with a case related to finding of terror activities in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
He was the first mainstream leader to be arrested by the NIA in a militancy funding case in which about a dozen separatist leaders and a businessman were already detained.
Officials said the agency will soon approach court for seeking a production warrant for summoning Rashid and question him about his association with Naveed. He is under the NIA custody till February 6.
On January 23, Naveed’s brother, Syed Irfan Ahmed, was also arrested after he was brought from Punjab.