First Crackdown Under Shah: NIA Gets 10-Day Custody of Separatists

Shah also chaired a meeting involving top officials and was briefed on matters related to J&K and the Northeast.

Home Minister Amit Shah may visit Jammu and Kashmir soon.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@AmitShah)

In what is being seen as the first sign of a crackdown under newly appointed Home Minister Amit Shah’s regime, a Delhi court on Tuesday, 4 June, sent separatists Masarat Alam Bhat, Asiya Andrabi and Shabbir Shah to 10-day National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody in a terror funding case involving Hafiz Saeed, reported PTI.

The NIA had brought Bhat to Delhi from Jammu earlier in the day for questioning. Bhat is the chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Muslim League and is a constituent member of the Syed Geelani-led separatist group, All Parties Hurriyat Conference.

The NIA arrested the three during in-chamber proceedings before Special Judge Rakesh Syal and sought 15-day custodial interrogation, PTI reported.

Asiya and Shah were already in custody in separate cases while Alam was brought from Jammu and Kashmir on transit remand, advocate MS Khan appearing for the accused told PTI.

NIA had filed a charge sheet in 2018 against Saeed, another terror mastermind Syed Salahuddin and 10 Kashmiri separatists in a case of alleged terror funding and secessionist activities in the valley.

It said that offences for which the accused have been charge-sheeted include those punishable under sections 120B of IPC (criminal conspiracy) and various provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

According to NIA, the case was registered on 30 May 2017 and the first arrests made on 24 July last year, according to the PTI report.

Briefing on Jammu & Kashmir, Northeast

Shah on Tuesday had reportedly chaired a meeting involving top officials and was briefed on matters related to Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast.

The meeting was attended by the Home Secretary and the chiefs of the J&K and Northeast divisions of the ministry.

Reports suggest that the Home Minister was also briefed about the “ten top active terrorists” in Kashmir and said that he might visit the state in the next few days. He also took stock of the security situation in the state, ahead of the annual Amarnath Yatra pilgrimage.

The top ten terrorists identified by security agencies and Jammu and Kashmir police are Wasim Ahmed, Riyaz Naiku, Aizaz Malik, Muhammad Ashraf Khan, Mehrazuddin, HM's Ashradul Haq, LeT's Wasim Osama, JeM's Hafeez Omar Zahid Sheikh and Javed Mattu, ANI reported.

On Monday, Shah had held his first internal security meeting, which was attended by NSA Ajit Doval, Intelligence Bureau Director Rajiv Jain and RAW chief Anil Dhasmana.

Meanwhile, PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti on Monday tweeted saying that Shah’s approach of applying “brute force” is “ ridiculously naive”.

(With inputs from The Print, CNN News18, ANI and PTI.)