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Regular-article-logo Tuesday, 16 April 2024

Stone-thrower link to Saeed: NIA

Alleged 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen boss Syed Salahuddin rub shoulders with two alleged stone throwers, one of them a photojournalist, in a National Investigation Agency chargesheet filed in a terror-funding case on Thursday.

Imran Ahmed Siddiqui Published 19.01.18, 12:00 AM
Hafiz Saeed

New Delhi: Alleged 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen boss Syed Salahuddin rub shoulders with two alleged stone throwers, one of them a photojournalist, in a National Investigation Agency chargesheet filed in a terror-funding case on Thursday.

Along with the Lashkar-e-Toiba chief and Salahuddin are named seven middle-rung Hurriyat leaders, a Valley businessman and purported commoners Javed Ahmad Bhat and Kamran Yusuf.

Bhat is a Kulgam resident while Pulwama-based Yusuf is a freelance photojournalist and a contributor to the Valley's largest-selling English daily, Greater Kashmir, sources said. All 12 face the same charges: criminal conspiracy, attempting to wage war against India, sedition, and offences under the anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

According to the chargesheet, money received from Pakistan is funding violence in the Valley, from the stoning of security forces and the torching of schools and government buildings to terrorist attacks. Saeed and Salahuddin are among the alleged senders, while the rest are receivers, distributors and attackers.

"It doesn't make much sense just naming Saeed in a chargesheet," said an official in the Union home ministry, to which the agency reports.

Islamabad is likely to be handed fresh dossiers on Saeed and Salahuddin in the terror-funding case.

The Hurriyat leaders named are Aftab Ahmad Shah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Farooq Ahmad Dar, Mohammad Akbar Khandav, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat, personal assistant of Syed Ali Shah Geelani. The 12th accused is a local businessman and alleged hawala conduit, Zahoor Ahmad Shah.

"The Hurriyat leaders, the terrorists and stone-pelters are carrying out terrorist attacks and orchestrating violence, stone-pelting and other subversive and secessionist activities in J&K as part of their well-planned criminal conspiracy hatched with active support, connivance and funding from terrorist organisation(s) based in Pakistan and its agencies," says the 12,794-page chargesheet, filed in a Delhi court.

"(Apart from hawala), the money is also routed through fake and bogus companies floated abroad and remitted to the Hurriyat leaders in J&K. All these funds are then pumped by them into fuelling mass violence and terrorist activities so as to cause damage to public property, disrupt the essential services throwing normal life in the state into chaos with an intention to threaten the unity, integrity and sovereignty of India."

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