Businessman’s house in old city raided by NIA sleuths
Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday raided the house of a prominent businessman in old city Srinagar in connection with alleged terror-funding.
Official sources said that security forces along with the local police personnel cordoned off Nowhatta area in Srinagar early on Tuesday morning before a team of NIA raided the house of businessman Ajaz Ahmad Hakak.
Hakak is latest among the list of persons, mostly separatists and businessmen, whose residences were raided by the NIA in connection with terror funding in Kashmir.
The investigation alleged that separatists are receiving money through hawala and other sources for funding militancy and stone pelting. Those arrested so far included spokespersons of both the factions of the Hurriyat Conference (HC) Aiyaz Akbar and Advocate Shahidul Islam and two sons of Pakistan-occupied- Kashmir (PoK) based United Jehad Council (UJC) chief Mohammad Yousuf Shah alias Syed Salahuddin.
However, the Delhi High Court on September 18, 2018 granted bail to Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali, who was arrested by the NIA for his alleged role in a terror-funding case involving Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief and 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed.
Watali is the third accused in an alleged funding case to be granted bail. Photojournalist Kamran Yousuf and a youth Javed Ahmad Bhat , a resident of Kulgam, both accused of stone pelting, were granted bail by the court earlier this year.
The NIA investigation started after a senior separatist leader Nayeem Ahmad Khan, chief of National Front (NF) admitted in a sting operation that separatists were receiving terror funds from different parts of the globe, particular Pakistan and PoK. Khan was later suspended from the hardline HC after his admission.
The NIA made these arrests after conducting raids at over two dozen places in Kashmir, Jammu, Haryana and Delhi. Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chief Shabir Ahmad Shah has also been arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) July 2017 in connection with money laundering case of 2015.
KV News
