Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU/NEW DELHI, July 30: The National Investigating Agency (NIA) today searched residence and office of a lawyer linked to hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani here and detained him for questioning after recovery of several incriminating documents in connection with terror funding FIR, which has already been lodged in New Delhi in which seven separatist leaders have been arrested. The NIA has also summoned Geelani’s two sons–Naseem on Wednesday and Nayeem on Monday in New Delhi for investigations in the same case.
Click here to watch video
Official sources told the Excelsior that a team of NIA from New Delhi simultaneously raided the residence and office of Devender Singh Behal at Bakshi Nagar this morning. The raids were based on leads obtained by the NIA during questioning of seven separatist leaders, who were being interrogated in New Delhi after their arrest in Srinagar and Union capital.
Sources said during raids at the house of Behl, the NIA teams seized four mobile telephones, a tablet computer and few other articles. As the raids concluded this evening, Behal was detained for questioning. However, according to sources, he hasn’t been arrested so far.
“Behal was being questioned for his involvement in the case. If his involvement was found, he will be taken to New Delhi,’’ sources said.
Sources said Behal happens to be the chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Social Peace Forum (JKSPF), a constituent of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat headed by Geelani and was affiliated with the organization for the past quite some time.
Behal is also a member of the legal cell of the separatist amalgam led by Geelani and a “close associate” of the Hurriyat hawk. Behal, the anti-terror probe agency said, also regularly attends the funeral processions of militants.
“The NIA is investigating his role as a courier as he is suspected to be involved in routing funds to separatist leaders from Pakistan-based handlers,” sources said.
In a related development, the NIA also issued summons to Naseem, the younger son of Geelani, asking him to appear before it on Wednesday.
Geelani’s elder son, Nayeem, who was asked to present himself at the agency’s headquarters in New Delhi tomorrow, has been admitted to a hospital in Srinagar after he complained of chest pain, sources said.
Nayeem, a surgeon, had returned from Pakistan in 2010 after spending 11 years and is considered Geelani’s heir apparent.
Nayeem was to be questioned in connection with the terror funding case which has named Hafiz Saeed, leader of Pakistan- based Jamaat-ud-Dawa and banned terrorist outfit Lashkar-e- Toiba, as an accused.
The NIA has also named separatist organizations like the two factions led by Geelani and moderate leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and all-woman outfit Dukhtaran-e-Milat in its FIR.
Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah alias Altaf Fantoosh has already been arrested by the NIA and was being interrogated.
Besides him, Geelani’s close aides Ayaz Akbar, spokesman for Tehreek-e-Hurriyat and Peer Saifullah were arrested from the Valley last week.
Shahid-ul-Islam, spokesman for the moderate Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Nayeem Khan (of the Hurriyat’s Geelani faction) and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias ‘Bitta Karate’ have also been arrested. All of them have been remanded in 10 days NIA custody.
The NIA had registered the case on May 30, accusing separatist and secessionist leaders of being in cahoots with terrorist groups.
The case was registered over raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including through hawala channels, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in the State and for causing disruption in the Valley by pelting security forces with stones, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.
The NIA conducted searches in several places in the State besides Haryana and the national capital. Electronic devices and valuables worth crores of rupees were impounded.
It is for the first time since the rise of militancy in the early 1990s that a Central probe agency has conducted raids in connection with the funding of terrorist and separatist groups.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
