Terror funding case | NIA conducts searches at 16 locations

Srinagar: As part of its continuing crackdown on terror funding in Jammu and Kashmir, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Thursday conducted searches at multiple locations in a case related to separatist and secessionist activities of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI).

According to the NIA statement, JeI has been found carrying out terror funding activities in J&K, even after being declared an unlawful association under the UA(P) Act on February 28, 2019.

The NIA had filed a chargesheet in the case (RC-03/2021/NIA/DLI) in Special Court, Patiala House, New Delhi, on May 12, 2022, against four accused.

It had earlier registered a suo motu case in the matter on February 5, 2021, the NIA said.

The searches were conducted Thursday at the premises of JeI J&K members and supporters at 16 locations including 11 in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district and the remaining five located in Kishtwar district of Chenab Valley.

Several incriminating materials and digital devices were seized during the searches and were being examined for more clues in the case.

So far, the NIA investigations have revealed that the JeI J&K members had been collecting funds domestically and from abroad through donations, particularly in the form of Zakat, Mowda, and Bait-ul-Mal as well as for purported charitable purposes like promotion of education and health.

It said that the funds were, instead, being used for violent and secessionist activities in J&K.

The NIA said that they were also being channelled to proscribed terrorist organisations, such as Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and others through well-organised networks of JeI cadres.

It said that as per the investigations, JeI was also engaged in motivating impressionable youth of Kashmir and recruiting new members (Rukun) in J&K for carrying out violent, disruptive, and secessionist activities.

The NIA said that its previous investigations had revealed that one of the four arrested accused identified as Javaid Ahmad Lone had been soliciting funds and organising meetings in the name of JeI J&K.

It said that he had been delivering hateful anti-India speeches and exhorting people to make donations at these meetings.

The NIA said that along with Aadil Ahmad Lone, he had also acquired firearms and ammunition with ulterior motives from the other two accused, identified as Manzoor Ahmad Dar and Rameez Ahmad Kondu.