NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency on Tuesday questioned Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's sons- Nayeem and Naseem Geelani in connection with its Jammu and Kashmir terror funding and civil unrest probe.
Sources said that Nayeem, a surgeon by profession, and his younger sibling Naseem, an employee in J&K government, were being questioned in Delhi as their names have cropped up during questioning of arrested separatists.
It is alleged that pro-Pakistan Hurriyat leaders were getting funds from Pakistan based terror outfits led by Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed and others for carrying subversive activities in the valley including stone pelting, assisting terrorists, burning schools and government buildings and attacking security forces.
NIA had registered a case on May 30, accusing separatist and secessionist leaders of being in cahoots with terrorist groups. The case was registered over raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including through hawala channels, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in the state.
It is for the first time since the rise of militancy in the early 1990s that a central probe agency conducted raids in connection with the funding of terrorist and separatist groups.
NIA claims that it has established a link between top separatist leaders and Pakistan-based organisations and that funds come to valley through several channels including- LoC barter trade, hawala and cash.
Five others – Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal, former Hizbul Mujahideen militant who organises stone pelting/processions on instructions of Geelani; Peer Saifullah – crucial Tehreek-e-Hurriyat member who is often seen at Geelani's residence; Shahid-ul-Islam – Mirwaiz Umer Farooq-led moderate Hurriyat Conference spokesperson whose original name was Aftab Hilali when he was supreme commander of Hizbullah, a Kashmiri militant group known for its violent attacks on Indian security forces in 90s; Nayeem Khan – a diploma engineer closely associated with Shabir Shah, who also managed hawala funds for separatists; and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias ‘Bitta Karate', a former JKLF militant, closely associated with operations of Hurriyat, were also arrested.
NIA had said these seven separatist leaders were the main link in “terror funds” received from Pakistan-based terror groups. The funds, upon collection, were distributed to local leaders for further disbursement to cadres/stone pelters and terrorists who need money for carrying out attacks on security forces.
NIA director general Sharad Kumar had told TOI last month, “Hurriyat leaders/cadres were acting in connivance with active militants of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terrorist organisations and gangs for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means including hawala, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and for causing disruption in Kashmir valley by way of pelting stones on the security forces, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.”
