NIA Issues Non-Bailable Warrants Against Hafiz Saeed, S Salahuddin

NIA said that during the investigation, its teams conducted searches at over 60 locations spread across J&K.

File image of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed.

(Photo Courtesy: Reuters)

A special NIA court issued non-bailable warrants against Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin for their involvement in terror funding activities, officials said on Friday, 2 November.

"NIA approached the special NIA court for issuing non-bailable warrants against the above accused for their active involvement in terror funding for creating unrest in the Kashmir Valley and other parts of India," NIA's spokesperson said.

The two mobilised Pakistan-trained terrorists and pushed them into India in connivance with secessionist and separatist leaders for waging war against India with the nefarious design of seceding Jammu and Kashmir from India, the agency said.

The NIA has already filed a charge sheet in the instant case on 18 January against 12 accused people, including Saeed and Salahuddin.

The probe agency had filed the 12,794-page charge sheet against Saeed and Salahuddin for conspiring to wage war against the government (Section 121 of Indian Penal Code) by carrying out terrorist and secessionist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

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

The agency said that during the course of investigation, its teams conducted searches at over 60 locations spread across Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Delhi and seized over 950 incriminating documents and over 600 electronic devices.

Over 300 witnesses were examined during the probe, it said.

The NIA said the scrutiny and analysis of the documents and digital devices established that the accused Hurriyat leaders, the terrorists and the stone-pelters were carrying out terrorist attacks and orchestrating violence in Jammu and Kashmir as a part of their "well-planned" criminal conspiracy.

It said that conspiracy was hatched with active support, connivance and funding from terrorist organisations based in Pakistan and its agencies to achieve their objective of secession of Jammu and Kashmir by waging war against the Indian government.

(Published in arrangement with PTI)