NIA to probe if separatists funded by LeT

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing the role of Lashker-e-Tayyaba chief Hafeez Mohammed Saeed and hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani in subversive activities in Jammu and Kashmir. The agency on Friday initiated a “preliminary enquiry” (PE) into the matter.

The NIA named the two in its PE. It also named Naeem Khan, who was seen on television during a sting operation purportedly confessing to receiving money from Pakistan-based terror groups. The others named in the PE were Farooq Ahmed Dar, alias “Bitta Karate”, and Gazi Javed Baba of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat.

The NIA team arrived in Srinagar on Friday to question those named in the PE and to collect documentary evidence against them. The LeT chief is based in Pakistan. In a PE, the NIA can ask those named in the case to appear before it but cannot force them to do so, or arrest them. The NIA team will be reviewing evidence collected in connection with the burning of schools last year after the Hizbul Mujahideen’s poster boy, Burhan Wani, was killed in an encounter with security forces on July 8.

The NIA’s PE alleged that the separatists were receiving funds from the LeT chief to carry out subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley, including pelting security forces with stones, damaging public property and burning schools and other government establishments. The NIA has also taken cognisance of a news item related to a recording of conversations between a TV reporter and leaders of separatist groups operating in the Kashmir Valley in this regard, he said.