NIA attaches more properties in Hurriyat terror-funding case

New Delhi, June 13 A day after attaching 17 properties of terror financier Zahoor Ahmed Shah Watali, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday attached two more properties belonging to another accused in the Hurriyat terror-funding case in Kashmir.

The properties of All Party Hurriyat Conference's (APHC) separatist leader Mohammad Akbar Khanday include nine kanals of land and a two-storey house in Srinagar. These have been attached on the orders of the special NIA court in New Delhi under Section 33(1) of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

"Khanday is currently lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with the terror-funding case. He served as the media advisor to Hurriyat Conference (G). He was raising and collecting funds from within India and abroad through various illegal channels and using the same to sponsor and promote separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir," an NIA official said.

The official said that Khanday, who had close connections with other separatist leaders of the APHC, operated in close association with the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM). He used to collect funds for unlawful and violent activities and was actively involved in activities aimed at secession of Jammu and Kashmir from the Union of India, as revealed by NIA investigation.

The case, filed suo moto by the NIA in May 2017, relates to terrorist and secessionist activities being carried out by ISI-backed proscribed terrorist organisations in Jammu and Kashmir.

These banned outfits, including Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) etc., were using the APHC as a front for their activities, as revealed by the NIA investigation.

They spread terror and perpetrated violence in the Kashmir Valley by promoting and carrying out attacks on civil and security forces.