Terror funding case: Delhi court extends NIA custody of Zahoor Watali

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday extended the National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody of Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Watali, who was arrested in connection with terror funding case.

Watali was arrested by the NIA slueths on the charges of receiving funds from Pakistan to sponsor terror activities and stone-pelting in Kashmir. He is said to be close to hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Earlier on August 16, the NIA conducted searches at a dozen locations in Jammu and Kashmir, including the house of Watali.

An NIA spokesperson said in New Delhi that officials searched the premises belonging to the family, relatives and aides of Zahoor Watali - an influential Kashmiri businessman known to be friends with Pakistani leaders and separatists as well as mainstream politicians in Kashmir.

Former Pakistan-administered Kashmir Prime Minister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary had attended the marriage ceremony of Watali's son at the businessman's residence in the posh Srinagar neighbourhood of Baagaat. His business empire is reportedly spread in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Dubai.

The central probe agency had arrested seven persons on July 24 in the case of alleged funding of terror and subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley to fuel unrest.

The NIA had alleged that money was being raised to fund separatist and terror activities in J&K.

The agency had claimed that the accused were waging war against the country and were involved in various offences punishable under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Shah is among those arrested. Other arrested are Nayeem Khan, Ayaz Akbar Khanday, Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Peer Saifullah (all from Geelani's faction of Hurriyat), Shahid-ul-Islam (of the Hurriyat faction led by the Mirwaiz) and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karatay of a faction of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front.