Seven second-rung separatists were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday for their alleged role in “creating unrest” in the Kashmir valley.
A senior NIA official told The Hindu that it was not investigating the case as that of “terror funding” alone, but to get to the root of the larger conspiracy to “keep the Valley burning over the last decade.”
The NIA informed Home Minister Rajnath Singh about 10 days ago that they had collected enough evidence to make the first round of arrests in the case. The Hurriyat has called a shutdown on Tuesday against the arrests.
None of the top leadership of the Hurriyat conference including Syed Ali Shah Geelani had been summoned by the NIA since it registered a case on May 30 under various sections of the anti-terror Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
The official said that inconsistencies were found in the accounts of several NGOs associated with the separatists. The key evidence against the accused persons came from traders involved in cross-LoC trade, said another NIA official. Last year, the NIA had registered a separate case to probe whether the proceeds from cross-LoC trade between Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) was being used to finance terrorist activities in the Valley.
Those arrested were identified as Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Peer Saifullah, Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Aiyaz Akbar Khaney and Altaf Ahmed Shah alias Fantoosh Geelani, the son-in-law of hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
Six persons were arrested in Srinagar and they were being brought to Delhi for questioning. Dar was arrested in New Delhi when he was called to NIA headquarters for examination.
“We analysed all the FIRs and videos related to stone-pelting incidents in the past one year. Those arrested for such crimes were interrogated and a lot of evidence was extracted from social media. When irrefutable evidence was gathered, we decided to arrest them,” Alok Mittal, Inspector General, NIA told The Hindu . According to Mr. Mittal, it was an ongoing investigation and more arrests were likely in the case.
The arrests followed several rounds of questioning of the suspects in Srinagar and in Delhi, said Mr. Mittal.
The FIR registered by the NIA said, “The Central government has received credible information that Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, head of Jamaat-ud-Dawah and the secessionist and separatist leaders including the members of the Hurriyat conference have been acting in connivance with active militants of proscribed terrorist organisations – Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), Dukhtaran-e-Milat, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and others for raising, receiving and collecting funds domestically and abroad through various illegal channels, including hawala to wage war against India.”
In May, NIA conducted raids at several locations in Srinagar, Delhi and Gurgaon at premises of separatists and businessmen who funded the terror activities.
Meanwhile, in a joint statement, Mr. Geelani, the Mirwaiz and Yasin Malik, called for a shutdown on Tuesday against the arrests. “We express serious concern about the safety of these people after their sudden arrests as no one has been to establish contact with them and their whereabouts are not known,” said the joint statement.
They described the arrests as “a drama being enacted by the government”. “As international pressure is building up on New Delhi to resolve the Kashmir dispute and address human rights situation here, New Delhi is working hard to ward off this pressure by projecting the people's political struggle in Kashmir as so-called Islamic terrorism aided by Pakistan,” reads the statement.
The Mirwaiz said the arrests are aimed at “maligning and implicating leadership and mislead the people of India”.
