Srinagar: A day after attaching 17 properties of Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday attached two more properties, belonging to another accused, in the “Hurriyat terror funding case” in Kashmir, the agency said in a statement.
The properties of All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) separatist leader Mohammad Akbar Khanday (alias Ayaz Akbar) include nine kanals of land and a 2-storeyed house in Srinagar. These have been attached on the orders of Special NIA Court, New Delhi, under section 33(1) of UAPA.
“Khanday, currently in Tihar Jail facing trial in the terror funding case, was the spokesperson/ media advisor of Hurriyat Conference (G). He was raising and collecting funds from within India and abroad through various illegal channels and was using the same to sponsor and promote separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir,” the NIA said.
The statement said that Khanday, who was closely connected with other separatist leaders of the APHC, “was operating in close association with Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) and he used to collect funds for unlawful and violent activities.”
He was also actively involved in activities aimed at secession of Jammu and Kashmir from the Union of India, NIA investigations have revealed, it said.
The case, filed suo moto by NIA in May 2017, relates to terrorist and secessionist activities being carried out by “ISI-backed proscribed terrorist organizations” in Jammu and Kashmir. These banned outfits, including Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), etc., were using the APHC as a “front” for their activities, NIA investigations stated.
They were spreading terror and perpetrating violence in the Kashmir valley by promoting and conducting attacks on civilians and security forces, it said.
The agency has so far filed chargesheet against 17 persons, including Hafeez Saeed, the chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawah and LeT and a UN designated terrorist, as well as Mohammad Yusuf Shah alias Syed Salahuddin, the chief of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM).
