Srinagar
National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed 12,000-page charge sheet in “terror funding” case in the state of Jammu & Kashmir in which various activities, links, and letters are mentioned, reports said.
Hanged to death on February 09, 2013, Afzal Guru’s letter also forms the part of the charge sheet. The letter written by Guru to senior resistance leader and Hurriyat (G) chairman, Syed Ali Geelani is requesting Geelani to help him (Guru) to shift from Delhi to Srinagar jail.
Excerpts reveal that the charge sheet also points to links between LeT chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and chief of UJC Syed Salahuddin with the top resistance leadership which comprises of Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Mohammad Yasin Malik, Asiya Andrabi and Shabir Shah.
Besides being in touch with militant leadership, the resistance leaders of the valley are accused of espousing the cause of secession of Jammu and Kashmir from India.
NIA, which is investigating the related cases of activities in the valley has mentioned in its charge sheet that Pakistan is offering scholarships to Kashmiri students to prepare a generation which will be inclined towards it.
“During the course of investigation, it was ascertained that students who were proceeding to Pakistan on student visas were either relative of ex-militants or relatives of families of active militants who had indulged in various anti-national activities and had migrated to Pakistan or they were known to Hurriyat leaders,” it said and added that visa applications were recommended to the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi by various Hurriyat leaders.
“This shows a triangular nexus wherein the terrorists, the Hurriyat and the Pakistan establishment are the three vertices and they are ostensibly patronising the Kashmir students in order to prepare a generation of doctors and technocrats in Kashmir who will have leanings towards Pakistan,” quoting NIA charge sheet, Hindustan Times reported and added that NIA seized a document from the house of Nayeem Khan wherein he recommends a student for admission in a “standard medical college” in Pakistan because “her family has remained committed to the freedom struggle through thick and thin”.
The Hindu reports that a press statement issued by Geelani and shared on WhatsApp by one of the accused also features in the charge sheet. “That the Hurriyat leaders and the Joint Resistance Leadership are staunchly following the secessionist agenda is also evident from a Whatsapp chat retrieved from the phone of accused Ayaz Akbar Khanday,” the NIA says, quotes the newspaper.
Pertinent to mention, the NIA arrested 10 persons last year which they said are allegedly involved in the terror funding case. Apart from the Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin, the agency has named Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah, Geelani’s personal assistant Bashir Ahmad Bhat and businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali on the charge sheet.
The newspaper reports that the NIA cites a YouTube clip of an alleged conversation between Hafiz Saeed and Hizb commander Burhan Wani where the latter requests Saeed to “increase the financial and material support to LeT in J&K” to say: “Many videos in the open source” are available that establish a close “Hurriyat-Terror” link and that they [Hurriyat] are a “gang of conspirators waging a war against the Government of India to achieve their ultimate objective i.e. secession of Jammu & Kashmir.”
“Hurriyat leaders and other secessionists engineer arson and other unlawful activities, which are executed by an unruly mob who destroy public property. To control these mobs, security forces are often compelled to use force, including pellet guns,” the NIA said.
The agency added that “some youth” who get injured by these pellet guns are portrayed and hailed by the Hurriyat as “trophies” to highlight and instigate the local populace to resort to violence against India.
“The protests and demonstrations in the Valley are happening as per the elaborate calendar of protests authored by the Joint Resistance Leadership.”
