NIA attaches jailed Hurriyat leader Ayaz Akbar's house in Srinagar in 'terror funding' case

The NIA sleuths attached the residential property of prominent separatist leader Ayaz Akbar in Maloora Shalteng area on Srinagar outskirts in the case

Srinagar:Day after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) attached 17 properties of Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali in an alleged terror funding case, the federal probe agency on Tuesday attached the house of prominent separatist leader Ayaz Akbar in Maloora Shalteng area on Srinagar outskirts in the case, sources said.

It is learnt that the NIA sleuths turned up at the residential house of Ayaz and attached the residential property. A notice was also pasted by the NIA sleuths on the main entrance of the house in this regard. According to the notice, the property measuring 1 Kanal and 10 Marlas under Survey No, 31 at mauza Shalteng Tehsil Srinagar (J8K) has been attached under the Court Orders dated May 31, 2023 in RC-101 20177 NIA/ DLI, by the Special NIA Court.

Ayaz Akbar already stands arrested by the NIA in the case. The senior Hurriyat (Geelani faction) leader was arrested by the NIA in July 2018 in the alleged militant funding case. Ayaz, along with top Hurriyat leaders is lodged at New Delhi’s Tihar jail. Ayaz's wife, Rafeeqa, who was suffering from cancer for two years, had passed away in late April, 2021 while Ayaz was in jail.

The attachment of Ayaz's house comes a day after the NIA attached 17 properties belonging to "financier of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir" Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali in the Handwara area of Kupwara district in north Kashmir. A NIA spokesman said that the properties were attached on the orders of Special NIA Court, Patiala House, under section 33(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) (UAPA).

“These banned terrorist groups were using the Hurriyat Conference, which was formed in 1993 as a front for carrying out and supporting secessionist activities," in Kashmir, the NIA said. Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik is currently undergoing life imprisonment in the case. According to the NIA, the case relates to “terrorist and secessionist activities in Jammu and Kashmir carried out by proscribed ISI-backed organisations such as Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), JKLF, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and others”.

These outfits were spreading terror and perpetrating violence in the Valley by promoting and conducting attacks on civilians and security forces, it said. It said that the accused had entered into a “criminal conspiracy and adopted a strategy of instigating the general public to create a surcharged atmosphere in the Kashmir valley and also to resort to violence”.

Watali, the NIA said, had been sending the funds raised by him from various sources to the Hurriyat leaders “to promote the secessionism of J-K from the Union of India”.