NIA fails to find evidence over terror funding by Kashmiri separatists

New Delhi: A probe launched by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2016 against Kashmiri separatists for alleged terror funding has failed to find any evidence and is 'almost on the verge of closing'.

In 2016, protests were carried out on the streets of Kashmir after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander, Burhan Wani following which the NIA launched a preliminary enquiry into funding unrest in the Valley.

A report in The Indian Express said, the NIA suspected funds coming in from across the border and being given to stone pelters through suspected bank accounts which were believed to be linked to militants or separatists in the Kashmir Valley.

However, a year later, the NIA has failed to prove its allegations and all transactions carried out through these bank accounts were legal and not connected to terror funding. “No evidence of terror funding or financial aid to stone pelters has been found in that case. All bank accounts that were brought under the scanner have been found to have had legitimate business transactions. That case is as good as closed,” a senior NIA officer said.

The probe being carried on since a year was based on an input provided by the Army that some bank accounts had transactions and withdrawals that coincided with stone pelting in the Valley, the report added.

The officer said the latest case of alleged terror funding, where three second-rung leaders of Syed Ali Shah Geelani-led Hurriyat Conference faction were detained on Wednesday has been 'going strong' and might result into arrests.

The NIA had recently conducted raids at 23 places in Srinagar, Delhi and Haryana in connection with alleged hawala operations between Pakistan-based terror groups and Kashmiri separatists.

Later some of these leaders and activists were called to Delhi by the NIA for further questioning. They have also been accused of funding the unrest in the Kashmir Valley.

The separatists have strongly denied receiving any foreign funding and alleged that the Indian government is making false claims in order to defame the Kashmiri ‘freedom struggle’.

On Monday, a resolution read out by the Mirwaiz while addressing an Eid congregation through phone after he was placed under house arrest and subsequently passed amid pro-aazadi slogans had termed the NIA raids on the houses of separatist leaders and activists and a few Kashmiri businessmen as “illegal”.