NEW DELHIl: The National Intelligence Agency on Saturday raided 14 places in Kashmir and 8 in Delhi in connection with reports of terror funding in the Valley. “Raids are being conducted at 8 locations in Delhi-Haryana and 14 locations in Kashmir,” NIA sources told news agency ANI. The agency had earlier registered a Preliminary Enquiry into the case which was later converted into regular case (RC) last evening.
“NIA raids also underway against hawala operators, and at separatist leaders’ house, office and commercial locations,” sources told ANI. Around eight hawala dealers and traders in the national capital were also raided, they added.
The agency started searches in the wee hours of Saturday at the houses of second-rung separatist leaders in the Valley, according to news agency PTI. Aides and kins of separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani were among those whose houses were raided by the agency on Friday, including Altaf Fantoosh, his the son-in-law. Businessman Zahoor Watali, Shahid-ul-Islam, leader of Awami Action Committee, Naaem Khan and Hurriat leader Raja Kalwal in Srinagar, were also among those whose were houses were raided by the agency, as per news agencies.. Two places in Sonepat in Haryana were also being searched by the NIA teams.
The agency seized nearly Rs 1.5 crore from various locations in the Kashmir Valley, besides documents which were being scrutinised, officials said. While no separatist leader from the Valley has been named in the FIR registered by the NIA, organisations like the Hurriyat Conference (factions led by Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq), Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Milat and Lashker-e-Taiba besides Pakistan-based chief of Jamaat-ul Dawah Hafeez Saeed have been mentioned.
The raids were carried out following the questioning of three separatists leaders Nayeem Khan, Farooq Ahmed and Gazi Javed Baba who were allegedly receiving funds from 2008 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind and LeT chief Hafiz Saeed. The separatists were allegedly being asked to carry out subversive activities in Valley. including stone pelting at armed forces, damaging public property and burning schools and other government establishments.
