The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday arrested separatist leader and JKLF chief Yasin Malik after a special court granted his 13-day custody to the probe agency.
It also questioned Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq for the third consecutive day at its headquarters in New Delhi.
According to an NIA spokesman, Mr. Malik, chief of the banned group, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, and a constituent of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), was arrested on Wednesday in the alleged J&K “terror funding” case.
“Malik was brought from Kot Bhalwal Jail, Jammu, where he had been detained under the Public Safety Act, and produced before the NIA special court on Wednesday against a production warrant. The court has granted the NIA 13 days of custody of the accused,” said the spokesman.
Mr. Malik will now be produced before the NIA Special Court, Patiala House, New Delhi, on April 22.
House searched in Feb.
Malik was booked under the Public Safety Act on March 7 and shifted from Srinagar to a jail in Jammu. Earlier, the separatist leader was arrested on February 22 from his Maisuma residence, a week after the Pulwama attack. The NIA carried out searches of Malik’s residence in Srinagar on February 26.
“Jails are our second home. Malik’s arrest in nothing but dictatorship. Irony is that the international community is watching it as a mute spectator. The accusation of terror funding is a joke. The JKLF, after choosing the path of unarmed, non-violent and peaceful mode of struggle in 1994, has remained wedded to the decision,” said JKLF acting chairman Abdul Hameed Butt in Srinagar.
Meanwhile, the NIA also quizzed the Mirwaiz for the third straight day. Sources said the Mirwaiz was summoned in a “terror funding” case lodged in 2017. At least seven separatist leaders have been arrested in the case, including the Mirwaiz’s spokesman, Shahid-ul-Islam.
Call for shutdown
Meanwhile, the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the Mirwaiz and Malik, has called for a total shutdown on April 11 against the NIA crackdown.
“A complete shutdown will be observed against the so-called Indian parliamentary elections and against the NIA aggression against our leaders, besides sustained interrogation and repeated summoning of two sons of Mr. Geelani, Syed Naeem-uz-Zafar Geelani and Syed Naseem Geelani,” said a JRL spokesman.
