Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday raided the house of Pakistan-occupied- Kashmir (PoK) based United Jehad Council (UJC) chief Mohammad Yousuf Shah alias Syed Salahuddin in the central Kashmir district of Badgam in connection with terror funding. The raid followed the arrest of UJC chief’s son Syed Shahid Yousuf by the investigation agency in New Delhi after his questioning for about two days. Official sources told UNI that security forces and state police cordoned off Saibugh area in the Badgam district early Thursday morning before a team of NIA raided the house of Salahuddin, now in PoK, heading UJC, an alliance of different militant organisations. The raid was going on when the reports last came in, they said.
However, the family members alleged that arrest of Shahid was to pressure the UJC chief to succumb. Shahid is latest among the list of persons, mostly separatists and businessmen, arrested by the NIA in connection with terror funding in Kashmir. The investigation alleged that separatists are receiving money through hawala and other sources for funding militancy and stone pelting. Those arrested so far included spokespersons of both the factions of the Hurriyat Conference (HC) Aiyaz Akbar and Advocate Shahidul Islam.
The NIA investigation started after a senior separatist leader Nayeem Ahmad Khan, chief of National Front (NF) admitted in a sting operation that separatists were receiving terror funds from different parts of the globe, particular Pakistan and PoK. Khan was later suspended from the hardline HC after his admission. The NIA made these arrests after conducting raids at over two dozen places in Kashmir, Jammu, Haryana and Delhi. Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chief Shabir Ahmad Shah has also been arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) July this year in in connection with money laundering case of 2015. (UNI)