Agencies
Srinagar, April 8:
Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq will appear before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with alleged terror funding case on Monday. Mirwaiz will arrive in Delhi today along with three other separatist leaders.
He left for Delhi from Srinagar this morning. The separatist leader will be questioned by the NIA at its headquarters over his alleged involvement in the terror funding case.
Meanwhile, the Hurriyat Conference, in a statement, condemned the summoning of Mirwaiz and alleged that its chairman was being deliberately harassed and there was an effort to criminalise leadership for their political stand.
It further said that Hurriyat is an alliance of political parties that are working towards the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue and that associating with terror is “deliberate victimisation.” It also rejected the involvement of Mirwaiz and any Hurriyat leader in the terror funding case.
On February 26, the NIA, accompanied by police and CRPF personnel, had carried out searches at premises of separatist leaders, including Mirwaiz, in connection with the case related to the financing of terrorist and separatist groups in Jammu and Kashmir. The probe agency also conducted raids at the residence of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Yaseen Malik, Shabir Shah, Zaffar Bhat and Masarat Alam, new agency PTI reported.
It had also interrogated two maternal uncles of the Mirwaiz, Maulvi Manzoor and Maulvi Shafat, and his close aides last year.
Following the raids, the Hurriyat Chairman was issued three back-to-back summons by the NIA in the case. He was earlier summoned on March 11 and 18 for interrogation but failed to appear before the investigating agency, citing security concerns.
“Under the prevailing conditions of hostility wherein there is a threat to the personal safety of my client, it becomes unwise for my client to travel to Delhi,” counsel for Mirwaiz, Aijaz Ahmad Dhar, had said in a letter to the NIA, reported news agency PTI. He further said that if the NIA wants to question Mirwaiz, it can do so in Srinagar.
In the fresh summon, the NIA assured that his security concerns would be taken care of.
