NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR:THE National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday questioned three Kashmiri separatists in connection with a case relating to funding of separatist groups for allegedly fuelling terror and subversive activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan and Javed Ahmed Baba alias Gazi of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat were grilled by agency sleuths after their arrival at its headquarters here around noon, agency sources said. The agency had asked the trio to bring documents relating to their bank accounts and property transactions besides papers pertaining to Income Tax returns ahead of their appearance at the NIA headquarters.
The NIA had taken cognisance of a sting operation by a prominent English television news channel whose report claimed that Hurriyat leaders were being funded by Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). Following this, the agency had registered a Preliminary Enquiry against LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Jammu and National Front’s Nayeem Khan.
The television channel had aired the report based on the sting operation wherein Khan was purportedly shown confessing to receive money from Pakistan-based jihadi groups through hawala channels.
In Kashmir, for the second consecutive day, restrictions imposed by authorities to foil protests and shutdown called by separatists opposing the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Sabzar Bhat and his associate affected normal life in the Valley, even as a 70-year-old mentally unsound person was arrested and released after he attempted to grab the rifle of a paramilitary jawan.
In the areas where restrictions were not enforced, life was crippled by the two-day shutdown called by the separatists.
After Sabzar’s killing, authorities had ordered closure of educational institutions across the Valley on Monday. The exams scheduled for the day were also postponed.
Pro-independence JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik was arrested on Sunday from his residence in Srinagar. He has been shifted to the central jail, Srinagar.
Train services in the Valley remained suspended for the second day on Monday while mobile Internet services remained snapped for the third day.
The mentally unsound person was arrested after he allegedly attempted to grab the rifle of a CRPF jawan, who raised an alarm. A police officer said the man grabbed the rifle of the CRPF man at Lal Chowk area in south Kashmir’s Anantnag town.
“Other CRPF men rushed to the spot and took the elderly man into custody,” he said.