Stone-pelting incidents: Pakistan-based JuD using WhatsApp to foment trouble in Kashmir

Srinagar: The National Investigating Agency (NIA), which is probing the terror funding cases in Jammu and Kashmir, has found at least 28 WhatsApp groups that are being administered by members residing in Pakistan, a report said on Wednesday.

A report published in 'The Times of India' states some cadres of terror outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawaa are also involved in creating such WhatsApp groups.

The sources in the country's top anti-terror agency have told the newspaper that though the majority of the members are Kashmiris but a significant number are linked to Pakistani mobile numbers.

The sources have revealed that the phone numbers in the WhatsApp groups show up in the posters of JuD, which confirm that the terrorist group headed by Hafiz Saeed, is involved in fomenting trouble in the Valley.

These WhatsApp groups are used to instigate the Kashmiri youth to indulge in stone-pelting.

Seven people including Altaf Ahmed Shah, the son-in-law of hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, were arrested on July 24 by the NIA in connection with its probe into the funding of terror and subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley.

A Delhi court on Tuesday remanded the seven Kashmiri separatists in NIA custody for 10 days.

Six of the separatist leaders were arrested from Srinagar on Monday and later flown to Delhi. Farooq Ahmad Dar was held in Delhi. They have been booked on charges of criminal conspiracy and waging war against India.

Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan. Islam is a close aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Ayaz Akbar is the spokesperson of Geelani-led Hurriyat.

The NIA said it had credible information that Hafiz Mohammad Saeed Amir of Jammat-ud-Dawaa and other separatist leaders, including Hurriyat Conference members, were acting in connivance with militants of Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat and Lashkar-e-Toiba and other groups to raise funds in India and abroad through illegal channels to fund terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

They entered into a larger conspiracy to wage war against India, it said.