NIA arrests Kashmiri journalist Irfan Mehraj in NGO militant funding case

Irfan is the first to be arrested in the “NGO Terror Funding Case” involving Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Societies (JKCCS) chairman, Khurram Parvez, who has already been arrested by the NIA in November 2021.

Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested Kashmiri journalist Irfan Mehraj in Srinagar and shifted him to New Delhi in an alleged NGO militant funding case, officials said on Tuesday. Irfan, a resident of Padshahi Bagh in Srinagar, who was presently working with the news website TwoCircles.net as its online editor, was arrested on Monday afternoon by the NIA and flown to New Delhi.

Mehraj is the first accused arrested following comprehensive investigations into the NGO terror funding case registered in October 2020, a spokesperson of the federal agency said. Mehraj was a close associate of (human rights activist) Khurram Parvez and was working with his organization, Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Societies (JKCCS), he said.

The agency alleged that the investigation revealed that the JKCCS was funding terror activities and had also been propagating a secessionist agenda in the Valley under the garb of the protection of human rights. The agency alleged that the investigation revealed that the JKCCS was funding terror activities and had also been propagating a secessionist agenda in the Valley under the garb of the protection of human rights.

Involvement of some Valley-based NGOs, Trusts, and Societies in the funding of terror-related activities is being probed in this case, the spokesperson said. The official said some NGOs, both registered as well as unregistered, have been noticed collecting funds domestically and abroad under the cover of doing charity and various welfare activities, including public health and education.

But some of these organizations have developed links with proscribed terrorist organizations, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), the spokesperson said.

Parvez was arrested in November 2021 by the NIA and charge-sheeted on May 13 next year along with six others for alleged anti-national activities including collecting information regarding vital installations and deployment and movement of security forces, procuring official secret documents and passing the same to LeT handlers through encrypted communication channels for monetary consideration.

Mehraj, as a journalist, has been associated with a regional English daily "Rising Kashmir" as its sub-editor. He has worked as a researcher with the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society. Besides being the editor for the online portal, Irfan was also doing freelance work with an international news organization, and his recent work on targeted killings of Kashmiri pandits and a fake encounter by an army of three Rajouri civilians in Shopian two years ago was published on global news platforms.

Reports said that Irfan has been arrested under UAPA in connection with case FIR no RC-37/2020 registered at NIA Delhi related to alleged militant funding. He was questioned by NIA in the same case last year.