People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) youth leader Waheed ur Rehman Parra has been sent to 15-day police remand by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court in Jammu & Kashmir after he was arrested earlier this week.
The NIA arrested Waheed Parra in a terror connected case. He was linked to ex-Deputy Superintendent Davidinder Singh’s case for supporting Hizbul Mujahideen activities, and was arrested on Wednesday after being interrogated for two days in Jammu and Kashmir.
Ex-deputy superintendent Davinder Singh was arrested on 11 January, due to allegedly ferrying Hizbul commander Syed Naveed Mushtaq alias Naveed Babu, advocate Mohammad Shafi Mir and another militant, Rafi Ahmad Rather, to Jammu in his car.
On Thursday, Parra was produced in a court in Delhi where a transit remand was sought since he had to be produced in a NIA court in Jammu.
NIA claims to have found phone records of Mir which showed that he was in close contact with Parra. Upon questioning, Mir allegedly said that Parra sought his support during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections for his party candidate Mehbooba Mufti, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
Parra’s arrest has seen great opposition from Mehbooba Mufti, the president of the PDP. She called the events ‘blackmail’ and said that these were false charges.
According to a report by Hindustan Times, Parra has a strong hold over the Kashmiri youth, and played an instrumental role in organising various public programs of the party. He also helped revive the PDP in South Kashmir, particularly in Pulwama, which is a militancy affected district.
Recently, Parra filed his nomination for the upcoming District Development Council elections from South Kashmir in J&K. He is known to be the first politician arrested in this case, after being arrested in 2019 as well.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times & NDTV)
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