jj correspondent
Srinagar, Jun 13: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday attached two properties of All Parties Hurriyat Conference jailed leader, Ayaz Akbar, at Srinagar’s Shalteng area, officials said.
The development comes a day after the NIA attached 17 properties of prominent Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmad Watali, who is accused of being a ‘hawala’ conduit
Akbar and Watali were arrested in 2017 by the NIA in a case related to funding and aiding militancy and separatism in J&K.
The officials said that the properties of Akbar on Srinagar outskirts was attached following an order by the special NIA court in New Delhi in May.
The properties attached include nine kanal land and a two-storeyed house in Srinagar.
“This is to inform all members of the public that the immovable property that is land measuring one kanal and 10 Marias under Survey No 31 at Mauza Shalteng tehsil Srinagar (J8K), in the name of Muhammad Akbar Khanday, S/o Ab Rehman Khanday, R/o Malora near Imam-ul-Bana Masjid, P S Parimpora, Srinagar, J&K, as Abadi Deh, has been attached under the court orders dated May 31, 2023 in RC-10/ 2017/ NIA/ DLI, by the Special NIA Court,” one of the attachment order read.
Akbar was a confidant of late Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani and acted as a spokesman of his group for many years. He was arrested over the alleged militant funding case and is presently under detention in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
NIA said he was raising and collecting funds from within India and abroad through various illegal channels and was using the same to sponsor and promote separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
A spokesperson of NIA said Akbar was closely connected with other separatist leaders of the APHC, was operating in close association with Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) and used to collect funds for unlawful and violent activities.
“He was also actively involved in activities aimed at secession of Jammu and Kashmir from the Union of India,” NIA investigations have revealed.
The case, filed suo moto by NIA in May 2017, relates to terrorist and secessionist activities being carried out by ISI-backed proscribed terrorist organisations in Jammu and Kashmir.
These banned outfits, including Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) etc, were using the APHC as a front for their activities, NIA investigations have revealed.
They were spreading terror and perpetrating violence in the Kashmir valley by promoting and conducting attacks on civilians and security forces.
The agency has so far filed chargehsheets against 17 persons, including Hafeez Saeed, the Amir of Jamaat-ud-Dawah and LeT and a UN-listed terrorist, as well as Mohd Yusuf Shah alias Syed Salahuddin, the chief of HM.
Over the last few years, NIA has launched a massive crackdown against terror funding in Jammu and Kashmir and many people have been arrested and their properties have been attached. UNI
