Shabir Shah sent to ED custody
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 26: The National Investigating Agency (NIA) could question some more separatist leaders of the Kashmir valley even as it has identified about 50 stone pelters, who were in direct contact with the already arrested leaders and were instrumental in fanning trouble in the Kashmir valley by pelting stones on security personnel during encounters and search operations.
Sources told the Excelsior that the NIA was engaged in sustained questioning of seven separatist leaders, who were arrested from Srinagar and New Delhi on Monday and were taken on 10-day custodial remand from a Delhi court yesterday. However, to corroborate the statements being made by the arrested leaders and to substantiate the evidence, the investigating agency was likely to question some more separatists in Srinagar, though it may not arrest them.
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“The questioning of some more separatist leaders hasn’t been ruled out,” they said, adding that it could take place in the next few days.
Seven arrested separatists include Altaf Ahmad Shah alias Altaf Funtoosh, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Peer Saifullah, Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Nayeem Khan and Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate.
Bitta Karate was arrested in New Delhi and the others separatist leaders were taken into custody from Srinagar and taken to New Delhi.
Sources said the NIA has already identified about 50 hardcore stone pelters of the Kashmir valley, who were in direct contact with the arrested separatists and were taking directions and funds from them for fanning unrest in the form of protests in the Valley.
“The list of these stone pelters has been prepared,” sources said, adding that based on the evidence some of them could be arrested while others might by quizzed only to garner sufficient evidence against the arrested separatist leaders.
Sources said the NIA laid hands on the separatist leaders after it had already gathered enough evidence against them for receiving funds through hawala channels and using them to foment trouble in the Valley.
“About 50 hardcore stone pelters, whose list has been prepared, were active in the Valley for past sometime and were even wanted to the local police as they had not only been involved in stone pelting but were also instigating others to pelt stones on security forces to disrupt search operations against the militants,” sources said.
Meanwhile, the Centre is not expecting any trouble in Kashmir in the wake of the arrest of eight separatist leaders, including Shabir Shah, in connection with investigations into alleged terror funding, the Government today said.
“The Union Home Ministry is not expecting any adverse reaction from the general public in the Valley,” a Ministry spokesperson said in New Delhi.
While seven separatist leaders were arrested on Monday, another separatist leader Shabir Shah was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate last night in connection with over a decade-old money laundering case against him for alleged terror financing.
Sources said the NIA official were also in regular touch with Jammu and Kashmir Police especially as far as identification of the habitual stone pelters was concerned.
Meanwhile, Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah was today sent to seven days’ Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody by a Delhi court in a decade-old case of money laundering for alleged terror financing.
Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma allowed the custodial interrogation of Shah, who was arrested yesterday, by the ED after the agency told the court that he was not cooperating with the investigators.
The ED had issued multiple summons to Shah, but he never deposed before the central probe agency.
A Delhi court had earlier this month issued a non- bailable warrant (NBW) against the separatist leader.
The agency had been issuing to Shah summons earlier too in pursuance of the August 2005 case in which the Delhi Police’s Special Cell had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani (35), an alleged hawala dealer.
According to the police Wani had claimed that he had given Rs 2.25 crore to Shah.
The ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Shah and Wani.
Wani was arrested with a large cache of ammunition and Rs 63 lakh, allegedly received through ‘hawala’ channels from the Middle East, on August 26, 2005.
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