SRINAGAR: Kashmir’s chief Muslim cleric and separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq refused to appear before National Investigation Agency (NIA) at its New Delhi headquarters on Monday on the plea that he cannot travel out of the Valley due to “conditions of hostility.”

The NIA, which is probing an alleged terror funding case, had last week summoned the Mirwaiz to New Delhi for questioning. He was asked to appear before the probe agency at its headquarters at New Delhi’s Lodhi Road on Monday morning. Earlier, the NIA sleuths had raided the Mirwaiz’s home and office here to conduct searches. The NIA had also summoned Syed Naseem Geelani, the younger son of separatist patriarch Syed Ali Shah Geelani, for questioning in the same case.

The Mirwaiz has, after refusing to travel to New Delhi, asked the NIA to question him in Srinagar instead.

In his written response sent through his legal counsel, the Mirwaiz has said that the notice to him appears to have been issued on the basis of “fallacious assumptions and misinformation solely aimed at maligning” him.

It said that knowing his status and position, it appears to be the outcome of considerations other than the law. “My client is not acquainted with the subject matter of FIR/NIA Crime No. RC 10/2017/NIA/DLI, referred to in the notice,” said his legal counsel Aijaz Ahmad Dhar.