NIA conducts raids in Delhi, Srinagar in connection with terror funding probe

In a major crackdown on terror funding, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has conducted raids at 11 locations in Srinagar of Jammu and Kashmir and five places in Delhi. Reportedly, NIA officials have confirmed that raids are underway at premises of traders who are allegedly linked with hawala operations and are using money to fund terror and separatist activities. Senior police officials have further claimed that NIA had also conducted raids at parts of South Kashmir on Tuesday.

The NIA move comes a day after it arrested two people, including a freelance journalist, for their alleged role in stone pelting at the valley and for support against security forces through social networking sites. The accused, identified as Javed Ahmad Bhat and Kamran Yusuf of Kulgam and Pulwama districts of Jammu and Kashmir, were arrested in connection with an ongoing probe into terror funding. The NIA had earlier made multiple arrests as a part of its investigation in the case registered on May30, where Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) Chief and alleged Mumbai terror attack mastermind, Hafiz Saeed, is also an accused.

Till date, the NIA had arrested seven leaders for allegedly raising, collecting and receiving money through illegal means like hawala channels, to support terror activities in the Kashmir valley. The case also probes on individuals causing unrest in Kashmir by stone pelting, burning schools and damaging public properties.

Earlier, on August 17 the NIA arrested a prominent Kashmiri businessman named Zahoor Ahmed Watali and on July 24 the agency booked seven separatist leaders with links to terror funding from Pakistan and terror outfits based there.

In another major development in the day, prominent separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Yasin Malik have stated that they would be presenting themselves before the NIA in New Delhi on September 9. As reported by the Hindustan Times, JKLF chief Yasin Malik, after a meeting at Jamia Masjid in Srinagar said, “This (presenting before the NIA) is the only way to end the terror that NIA has unleashed in nook-and-corner of Kashmir. Keep doors of Tihar jail open, we are coming. NIA has terrorized the whole Kashmiri nation.”