NIA attaches properties of Hizb chief’s sons in Kashmir

jj correspondent

Srinagar, Apr 24:The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday attached the properties of two sons of Hizbul Mujahideen Chief Mohammad Yousuf Shah alias Syed Salahuddin, in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam and Srinagar districts.
The immovable properties of Salahuddin’s sons Shahid Yusuf and Syed Ahmed Shakeel, located in Soibugh Budgam and Nursing Garh, Ram Bagh in Srinagar were attached under section 33(1) of UA( P) Act, the NIA spokesperson said.
Both Shahid and Shakeel are lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since their arrest in October 2017 and August 2018. They were chargesheeted on April 20, 2018 and November 20, 2018, respectively.
“The duo had been receiving funds from abroad from the associates of their father and overground workers of HM,” the NIA said.
Both the sons of Hizb chief were sacked from services in July 2021 by the J & K government invoking Article 311 for their alleged involvement in anti-national activities.
The NIA said Salahuddin, who had fled to Pakistan in 1993, was designated as an individual terrorist by India in October 2020.
“He continues to operate from Pakistan, from where he is guiding and instructing HUM (Hizbul Mujahideen) cadres as well as activists of UJC (United Jehad Council), also known as Muttahida Jihad Council (MJC) which is a conglomerate of around 13 Pakistan-based Kashmir centric terror outfits,” the spokesperson said.
The NIA said besides instigating and operationalising militant activities in India, primarily in Kashmir valley, Salahuddin has been raising funds and routing finances to India through trade routes, Hawala channels, and international money transfer channels for furthering the terrorist activities of HM cadres.
The NIA said that it launched investigation in November 2011 into the criminal conspiracy to raise or collect or provide funds to commit terrorist acts and distribute funds among the terror groups and their sympathisers in Jammu and Kashmir for the purpose of committing terrorist acts.
The Special Cell of Delhi Police had initially registered a case in January 2011 and the case was subsequently taken over by NIA. Chargesheets as well as Supplementary Chargesheets were filed against eight accused in the case, including in 2011 and 2018.
The NIA has been cracking down on terror funding machinery in a bid to dismantle the terrorist financing ecosystem operating in Jammu and Kashmir with the help of individuals based in Pakistan and other countries.
On Monday itself, the NIA also seized six shops in Jammu and Kashmir’s Awantipora sub district in a case relating to a 2018 attack on CRPF Group Centre at Lethpora, J&K.
“Some land, including a house, belonging to the father of one of the accused was also attached in the same case in September 2020,” the NOIA said.
In 2021, NIA had attached residential properties belonging to the kin of two accused in the case of the terrorist attack on CRPF Convoy at Lethpora, Pulwama. Another residential property has also been attached by NIA in the case relating to the killing of two brothers -Anil Parihar and Ajit Parihar in Kishtwar district of Jammu in November 2018 UNI