NIA Summons Geelani’s Second Son to Delhi Over Terror-Funding Case

A Hurriyat spokesperson said Geelani is exploring ways and means to take legal action against the NIA.

In a related development, the NIA also issued summons to Naseem, the younger son of the Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani (above).

(Photo: PTI)

The National Investigation Agency has summoned Hurriyat separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s second son to Delhi in the terror funding case. The information is based on the NIA sources.

Both sons of Geelani, Naeem Geelani and Zahoor Geelani have been summoned by the investigative agency.

The NIA also raided the ancestral house of of Devinder Singh Behal in Nowshera. Behal is a lawyer who is believed to be a close aide of Geelani. Behal’s native place of Nowshera was rocked by protests over his links with separatists and anti- India activities.

A Times of India report said that Behal was allegedly in touch with the Pakistan High Commission and may has passed on national secrets to the ISI.

We suspect that Behal, who has been in close contact with people in Pakistan HC, was passing on classified information to alleged ISI moles, putting national security at risk. This is a serious offence and a potential ground to charge him under Section 121 of IPC (waging war against the state).

Senior NIA officer to <i>TOI</i>

‘Protest Calendar’

The NIA on Sunday had discovered a detailed ‘protest calendar’, authorised by Geelani , which indicates the role played by the separatists in organising violence across the Valley, dating from Hizbul Mujahideen leader Burhan Wani's death.

According to another Times of India, the 'protest calendar' was recovered from Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah, alias 'Funtoosh' and contained details of how the Hurriyat fanned radical sentiments and incited violence through stone-pelting, resulting in the death of hundreds.

Geelani’s ‘NIA Propaganda’ Press Conference Foiled

A press conference called by senior Separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani on 30 July was not allowed to be held by the authorities, said a spokesperson of his Hurriyat faction.

Geelani had called a press conference at his uptown Hyderpora residence where the octogenarian Separatist leader has been placed under house arrest, but police reportedly did not allow any media person to enter Geelani’s residence.

The press conference had been called to counter “the false and baseless propaganda by NIA (National Investigation Agency) and Indian media against Geelani, his family and party leaders,” said the spokesman.

He added that that Geelani is exploring ways and means to take legal action against the NIA and the media for maligning his image and that of his family members and party leaders.

NIA Raids Geelani’s Lawyer

Widening its probe in the terror funding case, the NIA on 30 July searched the office and residence of a lawyer linked to hardliner separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on suspicion of routing funds to separatists from their Pakistan-based handlers.

A spokesman for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said the office and residence of Devinder Singh Behal, chairman, Jammu and Kashmir Social Peace Forum (JKSPF), a constituent of Tehreek-e-Hurriayat headed by Geelani, were searched in Jammu.

Behal is also a member of the legal cell of the separatist amalgam led by Geelani, and a “close associate” of the Hurriyat hawk. Behal, the anti-terror probe agency said, also regularly attends the funeral processions of militants.

Visuals from outside Behal’s residence in Jammu. (Photo: ANI)

"The NIA is investigating his role as a courier as he is suspected to be involved in routing funds to separatist leaders from Pakistan-based handlers," the spokesman said.

He claimed several incriminating documents, four mobile phones, a tablet computer and a few other articles were seized during the searches, and Behal was being questioned.

In a related development, the NIA also issued summons to Naseem, the younger son of Geelani, asking him to appear before it on Wednesday. Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah alias Altaf Fantoosh has already been arrested by the NIA and was being interrogated.

Besides him, Geelani’s close aides Ayaz Akbar, spokesman for Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, and Peer Saifullah were arrested from the Valley last week.

The NIA had registered the case on 30 May, accusing separatist and secessionist leaders of being in cahoots with terrorist groups.

The case was registered over raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including through hawala channels, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in the state and for causing disruption in the Valley by pelting security forces with stones, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.

The NIA conducted searches in several places in the state besides Haryana and the national capital. Electronic devices and valuables worth crores of rupees were impounded.

It is for the first time since the rise of militancy in the early 1990s that a central probe agency has conducted raids in connection with the funding of terrorist and separatist groups.

(With inputs from PTI.)

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