A senior police official here said that searches were carried out after the necessary court warrant was obtained.
Srinagar, October 4:
The National Investigation Agency Wednesday carried out searches at the residence of Syed Shakeel Ahmad, son of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, in Srinagar’s Rambagh locality. Shakeel is presently lodged in New Delhi’s Tihar jail.
Inspector general of police with the NIA Alok Mittal confirmed that a team of NIA sleuths carried out searches at Shakeel’s residence this morning.
A senior police official here said that searches were carried out after the necessary court warrant was obtained.
Shakeel, who works as a lab technician at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Srinagar, was arrested by the NIA from his residence in the first week of September in connection with the case of alleged funding for militancy. Shakeel is the second son of Salahuddin who has been arrested. His brother Shahid, who was working in the agriculture department, has also been arrested during investigations into the funding case.
The case, registered by the NIA in April 2011, relates to alleged transfer of money from Pakistan to Jammu and Kashmir through hawala channels via Delhi, which the agency alleged was used in funding militancy and “secessionist activities”.
The NIA has so far filed two chargesheets against six people in the case. While four of them are in judicial custody, two are absconding and an Interpol Red Corner notice has been issued against them.
The NIA had also registered two other cases related to militant funding—one in November 2011 and the other in May 2017. It had filed a chargesheet against 10 people including Syed Salahuddin in the April 2011 case.
The agency had claimed that during its probe, the involvement of Shakeel had surfaced in “raising, receiving, collecting funds from militant organisations through active cadres from Saudi Arabia”. It had also claimed that Shakeel had received money sent by Aijaz Ahmad Bhat alias Aijaz Maqbool Bhat through Western Union several times. The NIA had further claimed that its probe showed that Shakeel, the eldest son of Salahuddin, had received funds from various countries “from the operatives of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen”.
Courtesy: Greater Kashmir
