Srinagar, July 30: The Hurriyat Conference today denied it was receiving funds to sustain militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. "The charges levelled by Minister of State for Home I D Swami against Hurriyat Conference in the Rajya Sabha are false and baseless," the amalgam's chairman Maulana Mohammmad Abbas Ansari said.
"The charges are aimed at maligning the Hurriyat's image globally," he said. We do not receive any funds to sustain militancy......We have no connections with militants," Ansari added. He also denied that the 25-party amalgam was receiving any funds from anyone other than the people of Jammu and Kashmir. “The Hurriyat runs its day-to-day affairs through generous donations made by people of the state. People come and donate money on their own. We do not seek it," he said.
"Pakistan does not provide us money......Islamabad only lends moral, political and diplomatic support to our cause and that is where it ends," Ansari said.
He said the conglomerate used to collect donations to distribute among the needy but that too was stopped two years ago as counter-insurgents would take it away from them. Earlier in the day, the minister told Rajya Sabha that the recoveries made from the Delhi office of the Hurriyat and interrogation of the concerned persons led to the assessment that the amalgam was receiving funds from various channels for sustaining secessionist movement in the Kashmir Valley. Bureau Report