After Shabir Shah, late Geelani's Srinagar house likely to be attached for alleged terror funding

Sources said the SIA received reports and "some evidence" that Geelani was given land by the now-banned Jamaat-e-Islami in 1988 and he later built two residential and office structures, allegedly with militant funds.

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): The State Investigation Agency (SIA) of Jammu and Kashmir has started the process of attaching the residential house of late separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani in uptown Srinagar over charges of terror funding, sources said. As per sources, the SIA received reports and "some evidence" that Geelani was given land by the now-banned Jamaat-e-Islami in 1988 and he later built two residential and office structures, allegedly with militant funds.

Geelani, who died in September 2021, had been living in the house for the last 35 years. Geelani's wife is living in the same house in Hyderpora while his two sons have their own houses in Srinagar. "The agency is probing the matter and no action will be taken till concrete evidence is found," an official said. The move comes after the Enforcement Directorate attached the house of separatist leader Shabir Shah in Srinagar under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The house, worth Rs 21.80 lakh, is located in Botshah colony, Sanat Nagar, in Srinagar's Barzulla police station area, officials said. Pertinently, Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah, who was also arrested in the 2017 terror funding case, died in custody at AIIMS, New Delhi last month. Interestingly, among all the accused leaders, only Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) president Yasin Malik has accepted the charges against him.

The court sentenced him to multiple imprisonments and other fines including life imprisonment. Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed, Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali, former MLA Engineer Sheikh Abdul Rashid, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Naeem Khan, Shahidul Islam, Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate and Yasin Malik are accused in the terror funding case.