Eighteen months after the socio-religious group, Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), was banned in J&K, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday conducted searches at 56 locations in 14 districts in the Union Territory (UT) in connection with a terror funding case in the wake of reports of regrouping by the banned organisation.
Sources said the residences of former JeI heads and in-charge of JeI’s Falah-e-Aam Trust, a charity organisation that runs around 100 schools in the UT, were raided by teams of the NIA in Srinagar’s Soura, Nowgam, Bemina, Harwan and Lal Bazaar areas.
House of JeI leader Dr. Mohammad Sultan Bhat, at present in Pakistan, was raided in Soibugh area of central Kashmir’s Budgam. Houses of ex-JeI presidents in Budgam, Ganderbal, Kulgam and Baramulla were also raided.
In Shopian, which was once considered hub of JeI, the house of the brother of Hamid Fayaz Ganie, who was Amir (head) JeI when it was banned in February 2019, was also searched. Ganie was arrested and booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
A NIA spokesman said 56 locations were raided in 14 districts in the UT, in districts of Srinagar, Budgam, Ganderbal, Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora, Anantnag, Shopian, Pulwama, Kulgam, Ramban, Doda, Kishtwar and Rajouri.
In February, the NIA had registered the case on a reference from the Ministry of Home Affairs related to separatist and secessionist activities of the JeI, which was proscribed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on February 28, 2019.
“The members of the organisation have been collecting funds domestically and abroad through donations, particularly in the form of zakat (donations), mowda and bait-ul-mal (charity money) purportedly to further charity and other welfare activities, but these funds are instead being used for violent and secessionist activities,” the NIA said, in a statement.
It was alleged that funds raised by the JeI were also being channelised to the banned outfits like Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) through well organised networks of the JeI cadres. The JeI had also been motivating the youth of Kashmir and recruiting new members in J&K to participate in disruptive secessionist activities, the NIA added.
