indo–asian news service
New Delhi/Srinagar, August 16: The NIA Wednesday widened its net in the Kashmir terror money trail and conducted searches at a dozen locations in Jammu and Kashmir, including the houses of a prominent Kashmiri businessman and a lawyer – both said to be close to hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
The fresh operation was a follow-up search by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Kashmir terror funding case that has already led to the arrest of eight separatist leaders for their alleged involvement in giving money received from Pakistan to overground workers of the Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba militant outfits to fuel unrest in the valley.
An NIA spokesperson said in New Delhi that officials searched the premises belonging to the family, relatives and aides of Zahoor Watali – an influential Kashmiri businessman known to be friends with Pakistani leaders and separatists as well as mainstream politicians in Kashmir.
Former Pakistan-administered Kashmir Prime Minister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary had attended the marriage ceremony of Watali’s son at the businessman’s residence in the posh Srinagar neighbourhood of Baagaat. His business empire is reportedly spread in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Dubai.
Sources said Watali, who has been under the NIA scanner for nearly two months and was called for repeated questioning at the agency’s Delhi headquarters, was quizzed afresh while the raids went on for hours at his premises.
The Srinagar house of lawyer Mohammad Shafi Reshi, one of the closest aides of Geelani, was also searched – sparking protests by the Kashmir High Court Bar Association in Srinagar. The investigating agency first conducted raids in Kashmir, Delhi, and Haryana in June in its search for evidences of separatist leaders and businessmen receiving funds from Hafiz Saeed, who heads Lashkar front Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity and other Pakistan-based militant outfits.
CRPF being trained, says its DG
Srinagar: Police and paramilitary CRPF personnel are being trained in standard operating procedures (SOPs) to help them deal with stone throwing incidents in Kashmir, CRPF Director General R R Bhatnagar said Wednesday. The DG said strategy, training and new SOPs had been formulated. “Using non-lethal ammunition mostly, we along with JK police have devised a strategy to put to work during strikes and stone pelting and you will see its effect soon,” he said. The DG was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function held for widows of paramilitary personnel killed on duty. Among the personnel killed was Commandant Pramod Kumar, who died in a militant attack August 15 last year.
