Press Trust Of India
New Delhi, Oct 24: The National Investigation Agency (NIA), Tuesday arrested Syed Shahid Yousuf, son of globally wanted terrorist Syed Salahuddin, in connection with a 2011 terror funding case for allegedly receiving money from his father.
An NIA spokesman said 42-year-old Shahid, at present working in the agricultural department of the Jammu and Kashmir government, was summoned to the agency’s headquarters Tuesday following which he was arrested. He will be produced before a designated NIA court Wednesday.
The NIA alleged Shahid used to receive funds through a US-based international wire transfer company from Aijaz Ahmed Bhat, another accused in the case who is absconding and based in Saudi Arabia.
The agency alleged Shahid was “one of several Indian contacts of Bhat” who had been in telephonic contact with him for receiving money transfer codes.
The NIA claimed so far he had received a total of nearly Rs 4.5 lakh through eight international wire transfers.
The case, registered by the NIA in April 2011, relates to the transfer of money from Pakistan to Jammu and Kashmir through hawala channels via Delhi, which the agency believed was used in funding terrorism and secessionist activities.
The NIA has so far filed two charge sheets against six people including G M Bhat, a close aide of pro-Pakistan separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mohammed Siddiq Ganai, Ghulam Jeelani Liloo and Farooq Ahmed Dagga. All four are in judicial custody.
Two others- Mohammed Maqbool Pandit and Bhat – were also charge sheeted by the NIA but are absconding. An Interpol Red Corner notice has been issued against them.
Shahid’s father Mohammed Yusuf Shah – better known as Syed Salahuddin – was declared a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Department of State in June this year. Besides heading terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, he is the chairman of the United Jehad Council (UJC), a conglomerate of terrorist outfits operating in the Kashmir Valley.
The NIA had also registered two others cases related to terror funding – one in November 2011 and the other in May this year. The agency had filed a charge sheet against 10 people including Syed Salahuddin in the April 2011 case.
In the recent case, the NIA arrested 10 people including some close relatives and aides of Geelani.
