NIA grills several persons in Srinagar in terror-funding case

New Delhi/Srinagar: The NIA on Monday questioned over half a dozen people in Srinagar whose premises were raided as part of the probe into alleged terror-funding by Pakistan-based terrorist organisations to stoke unrest in the Kashmir valley.

A National Investigation Agency (NIA) official requesting anonymity told IANS, "We have questioned over half a dozen people and called a few more to join the probe in Srinagar, whose premises were raided on Saturday and Sunday."

"During questioning we asked them from where they got the documents and letter heads of the banned terrorist organisations and about the source of their income," the official said.

The official said the counter-terror agency was scrutinising the documents it seized during the raids.

However, he refused to share the names of the people who were questioned.

The NIA had carried out raids at 26 places on Saturday and seven places on Sunday across Srinagar, Delhi and Haryana.

It seized property-related documents, letterheads of banned terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), pen drives, laptops, mobile phones and other incriminating documents, including phone diaries, receipts, vouchers from the premises of the accused financiers, hawala operators, and office-bearers of separatist groups during the raids.

The NIA action comes in the wake of the case it registered against Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and other terror organisations under the provisions of waging war against the country and criminal conspiracy, after it converted a May 19 preliminary enquiry against Hurriyat Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani and his close aide and Hurriyat provincial President Nayeem Khan, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat leader Ghazi Javed Baba, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Farooq Ahmed Dar aka Bitta Karate.

The NIA registered a case against Pakistan based organisations after India Today news channel released videos of the separatist leaders who confessed to receiving funds from Pakistan to incite trouble in Kashmir.