NIA quizzes Kashmiri separatist leader

Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) today questioned Hurriyat leader Naeem Khan in connection with the tapes in which he was purportedly seen confessing to receiving money from Pakistan-based terror groups. The sources said that Khan has also been asked to submit some documents related to the case. The agency questioned Kashmiri separatists on the fourth consecutive day today in connection with its probe into the role of LeT chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani in subversive activities in Jammu and Kashmir. The NIA has been questioning Farooq Ahmad Dar alias ‘Bitta Karate’, Javed Ahmed Baba alias Prince alias Gazi in Srinagar for their alleged involvement in raising, collecting and transferring funds through hawala and other channels for terror funding in Kashmir. The alleged funding received by the separatist leaders for fuelling unrest and promoting stone-pelting in the Valley is also under the scanner of the central agency, they said. The NIA has also collected details of 13 accused charge- sheeted so far in the cases in the Valley in the recent past, pertaining to the damage caused to schools and public property as part of the larger conspiracy to perpetuate violence and chaos in Kashmir. Substantial progress has been made and the probe is on, the NIA spokesperson said in a statement. Besides Naeem Khan, the NIA team, headed by the Additional Director General, has also asked Farooq and Baba to appear before it for their explanation on an expose on a television channel where they had claimed to be receiving funds from Pakistan. After initial reluctance, the three separatists fell in line and were questioned separately by the team of NIA, which has named them in its Preliminary Enquiry (PE). Besides these three, the NIA has named Saeed and Geelani in the PE, which precedes the filing of a case. The agency will also gather evidence collected by the Jammu and Kashmir Police about the burning of schools as Khan had claimed that the educational institutions were targeted as per the plans hatched from across the border. The schools were targeted last year after banned Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with security forces on July 8. The NIA’s PE alleged that the separatists were receiving funds from the LeT chief to carry out subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley, including pelting security forces with stones, damaging public property and burning schools and other government establishments. The NIA took cognisance of the news item related to recording of conversations between a TV reporter and leaders of separatist groups operating in the Kashmir Valley in this connection. –PTI