NIA arrests Hizbul chief Syed Salahuddin''s son in terror funding case

New Delhi, October 24

Tribune News Service

The National Investigating Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin's son Syed Shahid Yusuf in connection with its probe into terror funding in Jammu and Kashmir.

An NIA spokesman said 42-year-old Shahid, at present working in the agricultural department of the Jammu and Kashmir Government, was arrested in Delhi after he was called for questioning at the NIA headquarters in an old case of terror funding registered in 2011.

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He will be produced before a designated NIA court tomorrow.

The NIA alleged Shahid used to receive funds through a US-based international wire transfer company from Aijaz Ahmed Bhat, another accused in the case who is absconding and based in Saudi Arabia.

The agency alleged Shahid was “one of several Indian contacts of Bhat” who had been in telephonic contact with him for receiving money transfer codes.

The NIA claimed so far he had received a total of nearly Rs 4.5 lakh through eight international wire transfers.

The case, registered by the NIA in April 2011, relates to the transfer of money from Pakistan to Jammu and Kashmir through hawala channels via Delhi, which the agency believed was used in funding terrorism and secessionist activities.

The NIA has so far filed two charge-sheets against six people, including GM Bhat, a close aide of pro-Pakistan separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mohammed Siddiq Ganai, Ghulam Jeelani Liloo and Farooq Ahmed Dagga. All four are in judicial custody.

Two others—Mohammed Maqbool Pandit and Bhat—were also charge-sheeted by the NIA but are absconding. An Interpol Red Corner notice has been issued against them.

Shahid’s father Mohammed Yusuf Shah—better known as Syed Salahuddin—was declared a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Department of State in June this year.

Besides heading terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, he is the chairman of the United Jehad Council (UJC), a conglomerate of terrorist outfits operating in the Kashmir Valley.

The NIA had also registered two others cases related to terror funding—one in November 2011 and the other in May this year.

The agency had filed a charge sheet against 10 people including Syed Salahuddin in the April 2011 case.

In the recent case, the NIA arrested 10 people including some close relatives and aides of Geelani.

The arrest comes a day after Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday announced the decision to start a dialogue process in Jammu and Kashmir and named former Intelligence Bureau Director Dineshwar Sharma as its representative for the talks with all stakeholders in the state. — With PTI