After almost 15 years and in a major crackdown on the terror funding in the Valley, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted raids across 20 locations in Kashmir over the last three days. The raids continued on Sunday,”NIA took up fresh searches at five more locations belonging to secessionist and separatist elements and traders suspected of hawala activities and terror funding,” the agency said.
“The searches have so far led to the recovery of cash amount of over Rs 1.15 crore, property-related documents, letterheads of banned terrorist organizations such as LeT and HM, pen-drives, laptops, and other incriminating documents,” an NIA spokesperson had said.
The residence of hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani’s son in law and businessman Altaf Ahmad Shah alias Altaf Fantosh, moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s media advisor Shahid-ul-Islam, Geelani’s party Tehreek-e-Hurriyat leaders Mehraj Kalwal and Ayaz Akbar and leading businessman Zahoor Ahmad Watali were searched.
The NIA had on May 20 began its probe into the allegations of funding by Pakistan to separatists in Kashmir, a long-held assertion by Indian intelligence now ‘confessed’ by a Hurriyat leader in a sting.
The development came after the Hurriyat Conference suspended Nayeem Khan from the organisation after he allegedly confessed to receiving money from Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for Kashmir unrest . Khan was allegedly heard admitting in a TV sting operation that he had received money from Pakistan to create unrest in the Valley.
NIA had recently questioned Hurriyat leaders Naeem Khan, Farooq Ahmad Dar / Bitta Karate and Javed Ahmed Baba / Prince/Gazi at Srinagar and Delhi regarding their involvement in raising, collecting and transferring funds through hawala and other channels for terror funding in Kashmir.
It is an established fact that the separatists are funding the valley and unrest. Recently ,stone pelters have openly admitted( in a sting op) to have been paid for creating unrest. Nayeem Khan a Hurriyat leader was also stung by the TV channel . Later Hurriyat suspended Nayeem Khan over sting op remarks.
Some of the highlights from the NIA raids:
1) Raids conducted at 27 locations, including 14-15 in Kashmir and 7 in Delhi, are being raided since early Saturday morning. 5 more locations were raided on Sunday
2)Searches have so far led to the recovery of cash amount of over Rs 1.15 crore, property-related documents, letterheads of banned terrorist organisations such as LeT and HM, pen-drives, laptops, and other incriminating documents.
3) Some of the locations in Delhi are Greater Kailash, Pitampura and Ballimaran in Chandni Chowk.
4)One of the NIA teams, which include an Enforcement Directorate representative each, has already recovered cash worth Rs 1.15 crore in the raid at a residential location in Kashmir.
5) During the sunday raids ,Pakistani currency (a few thousand) and currencies belonging to the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been found and seized apart from other incriminating material. The concerned persons are being questioned
Political reactions to the NIA raids:
“NIA raids not a big deal, terror won’t stop after the raids”, said Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar. The same Aiyar had a closed-door meeting with hurriyat leaders a week ago.
The central government has said that “No compromise on safeguarding nation’s security”
Hyper twitter active Omar Abdullah has not tweeted anything about these raids, neither any media has reported any statements on the wake of these raids. No other political party has given statement on these raids.