Srinagar: The State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Wednesday carried out raids in Anantnag and Kulgam districts of south Kashmir in a terror-related case, officials said here.
The SIA sleuths conducted searches at five locations in the two south Kashmir districts, they said.
The raids were conducted in a case FIR 311/2023 of Police Station Anantnag registered on November 19, 2023 under sections 13,17,18,20,38 and 40 of the UA(P)A 120B, 121A, 121 of the IPC and transferred to the SIA Kashmir on 23.12.2023, said a spokesman of the SIA in a statement.
“It is pertinent to mention here that Zaffar Hussain Bhat alias Khursheed alias Khursheed Kashmiri, son of Sunnallah, resident of Lidder, Pahalgam, Sirgufwara, Ananatnag, is a close associate of Ghulam Nabi Khan alias Amir Khan, Dy Chief of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), and both are notorious designated individual terrorists under the UAPA, declared Proclaimed Offenders and having Red Notices of Interpol issued against them in several terror funding cases of the NIA including the Jammu Kashmir Affectees Relief Trust (JKART) case,” read the statement.
Khursheed Kashmiri is also wanted in Sanjay Sharma murder case of the SIA for his role in “arranging and delivering the weapon of offence and also other arms and ammunition consignments at different locations in Jammu and Kashmir through his network of associates,” it added.
“Hizb-ul-Mujahideen with active connivance of Mohammad Yusuf Shah alias Syed Salahudeen, chief of HM and the United Jihad Council and handlers of ‘Hizbul-Mujahideen’ (HM) and ‘Lashkar-e-Taiba’ (LeT), proscribed terrorist organisations in India, have worked out a detailed terror-funding plan of systematically and regularly financing of their active, arrested terrorists, families of killed terrorists and their associates, belonging to these proscribed terrorist organizations @ Rs 15,000 per member so as to sustain terrorism in the J&K,” the SIA statement said
It said “Zaffar Hussain Bhat alias Khursheed Kashmiri with his associates spread across the Kashmir are raising, collecting, receiving, transporting, distributing and delivering the terror money to active and arrested terrorists of HM and their kith and kin to further terrorist, unlawful, subversive and secessionist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and other places of India and also to disturb the communal harmony, spread disaffection towards India and challenge the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country by waging war against India.”
As per the statement, Zaffar Hussain Bhat “uses VoIP based encrypted messaging applications to communicate with his associates to plan, control and execute their movements and also to share the lists of the beneficiaries of these terror funds.”
“During today’s searches some crucial digital and documentary evidence like cell phones, pen drives, SIM cards, data cards, bank documents, passports etc. relevant to the ongoing investigation were recovered and seized,” reads the statement.
“On November 19, 2023, a close associate of Khursheed Kashmiri namely Majid Aziz Lawey, son of Abdul Aziz Laway of Liddermatto was arrested with terror funds to the tune of Rs 5 lakhs in this case,” the statement said.
