Pakistan funding of J&K separatists: Three Hurriyat leaders appeared before NIA for questioning

New Delhi: Three Kashmiri separatists today appeared before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) here for questioning in connection with a case related to the funding of terror and subversive activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

Agency sources said Farooq Ahmad Dar alias 'Bitta Karate', Nayeem Khan and Javed Ahmed Baba alias 'Gazi' of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat have arrived here for questioning by NIA sleuths.

Dar, Ahmed and Khan were asked to bring certain bank and property documents, besides other papers, before the NIA team that had questioned them here for four consecutive days earlier this month.

The questioning comes after the central probe agency, formed in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, named Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Taiba chief Hafeez Saeed, hardline Kashmiri separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Jammu and National Front Chairman Nayeem Khan in a Preliminary Enquiry (PE).

Khan has since been suspended from the Geelani-led Hurriyat Conference.

The case is based on a sting operation, aired on a news channel, in which Khan was purportedly shown confessing to receiving money from Pakistan-based terror groups through hawala channels.