Srinagar: “I congratulate NIA for its probe on funding of Hurriyat leaders. From where the money has came and how it is been utilized we will get to know that soon. One fact should also be investigated if Indian Government funded Hurriyat or not,” said Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday.
The former Chief Minister while talking to ANI asked the agency to investigate if or not the Hurriyat leaders who were arrested yesterday received funding from India also while congratulating them at the same time for the probe.
The seven leaders arrested are Altaf Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Mehraj Kalwal, Shahid-ul-Islam, Nayeem Khan and Bitta Karate. Among the seven separatist leaders were including the son-in-law of Hurriyat (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani and a close aide of Hurriyat (M) chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq were arrested by the NIA yesterday.
All of the arrested leaders were produced in the Patiala House Court later today.
The accused have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Six of them were arrested from Srinagar, while Bitta Karate was arrested from New Delhi.
The NIA had also visited Srinagar in May to probe the alleged funding by Pakistan for illegal activities in Kashmir, and questioned several
separatist leaders and businessmen on the issue of raising, collecting and transferring funds via the Hawala route and other
channels to fund terror activities in Kashmir.
NIA sleuths specifically questioned separatist leaders Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate and Gazi Javed Baba at that time.
The NIA is said to be keeping an eye on all the aspects of funding to separatist leaders and how they reportedly used these funds to fuel unrest in the Kashmir Valley and fund stone pelters.
